


Arch Rivals

by writingpages



Series: Arch Rivals [1]
Category: Fifth Harmony (Band)
Genre: Basketball, Camren - Freeform, F/F, Undercover
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-09
Updated: 2017-01-13
Packaged: 2018-09-16 02:03:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 12
Words: 72,780
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9268850
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/writingpages/pseuds/writingpages
Summary: Will Lauren still keep her word and let no one in?  Or will her Arch Rival sneak in and let her see the world differently?





	1. Chapter 1

Let’s go Tigers! Let’s go! . . . Let’s go Tigers! Let’s go! The section of students and family on one side of the stadium cheered in rhythm with the chant. The black banner with Eastdale Tigers in tall gold letters hung above the bleachers. Cheerleaders stomped their feet and clapped their hands in time with the chant. 

Be-e-e-a-a-t those Tigers! Beat ‘em! Beat ‘em! Beat ‘em! . . . Be-e-e-a-a-t those Tigers! The other team cheered back as there side jumped up and down to the beat of their drums. The blazing red banner with Westdale Patriots in black letters hung from the opposing bleachers. The gymnasium was packed with only standing room left for the state championship game.

There’s two minutes left in the fourth quarter and the Patriots are behind the Tigers by one point. It’s Patriots ball now, number 13, Camila has the ball and is bringing it up the court she notices the other team is playing man to man defense so she signals for her team to change up the offense accordingly.

Once they have rearranged she passes to her shooting guard, and cuts down around a block and tries to get open. The guards at the top of the arch are trying to keep the Tigers distracted as the play unfolds and Camila works to get open. Soon enough Camila realizes that the play is not going to work and tries to get back up front to call another play when her defender takes the opportunity to steal the ball and does. Lauren takes it down and lays it up for another two points putting the Tigers up by three points again. The Patriots call a time-out.

“For those of you just joining us the score is 87 to 84 in favor of the visiting Tigers from across town. Let’s see if our very own Camila Cabello can pull a miracle out of her junior captain brain. As it holds up though Lauren Jauregui hasn’t given Camila an ounce of space to breathe. Alright back to the action the teams are taking the floor and it looks like the Tigers are letting us bring the ball up with no pressing. All except Jauregui who is right on Cabello again.”

“You really think you had a chance against us didn’t you? Well guess what Cabello that trophy and title is going home with us this year. So I hoped you enjoyed it.” Lauren was saying to Camila as she brought the ball up the floor.

“Just wait and see Jauregui. I still got time to take you down. Hope you laces are tight.” Camila sneered back at Lauren.

“Mila! Ignore her and let’s get this done.” Normani shouted to her best friend when she shielded Lauren so Camila could get across half court. 

Camila looked to the clock there was one minute left and she had to make it count she either needed to sink the three pointer or she needed to get Lauren to foul her on the three point line and sink all the free throws. Camila had a determined look on her face while bringing the ball up the court.

“Bulldog! Bulldog!” Lauren yelled and her whole team changed back up to a zone defense all except her who stayed with Camila.

Well that changed everything for now the play Camila wanted to do wouldn’t work against a zone. Camila thought quick on her feet though and yelled back “Three! Three!”, she even held three fingers in the air to solidify her decision.

With the clock ticking down and only fifty seconds left Camila started to execute the play. Camila passed to Normani who passed down to their power forward at the free throw line and Normani snuck down behind a block and put an easy lay up in when the defenders didn’t switch in time.

“That’s it with a brilliant play call by our captain we are back within one point but can we steal the ball back and take the lead. With just thirty seconds left to play in this absolutely action packed game that is going on tonight, I really hope so." The announcer spat out with anticipation when the Tigers threw the ball in.

It was Lauren’s time to panic. The Patriots were setting up a zone press, “Stack! Stack!” Lauren yelled as Dinah went to throw the ball in. The Tigers were all set up on the half court line as Lauren traded places with Dinah to throw the ball in. The Patriots all took two steps backwards knowing that if Lauren was throwing the ball in that she was long arming it. Lauren slapped the ball and her team scattered three going towards the opposing baseline and one coming towards her. Lauren threw the ball in to Ally who seemed to have magically appeared out of nowhere almost right next to her.

Ally threw the ball back to Lauren when she got double teamed at the free throw line. Lauren took the ball and made it to half court and across the line right before her ten seconds were up. That means all she had to do was keep the ball for another twenty seconds to go. “Space! Space!” Lauren yelled and three players took up corner positions and Dinah stood alone on the free throw line. 

The Patriots were playing zone defense still, so there was plenty of room for the Tigers to pass the ball around the perimeter not shooting. Camila was trying her hardest to steal the ball but no matter what she tried everyone just passed it a different direction than where she was gong.

Lauren got the ball back with seven seconds left to go, at this point Camila was on edge and needed to get the ball back for her team. As soon as Lauren had the ball she faked like she was going to drive to the basket, Camila let Lauren go around her. As soon as she did Camila swiped for the ball, but in the process tripped over Lauren’s foot and they both went down. The ref blew the whistle and Camila was called for the foul. 

“Get off of me Cabello!” Lauren was furious. The two girls legs were intermingled and Lauren couldn’t get free and she had a throbbing in her left ankle.

“Shut it Jauregui! It’s not like you’re helping flopping around like that.” Camila shot back.

When they finally got untangled Lauren tried to get up but could hardly but pressure on her foot. “You have go to be kidding me. You’re going down Cabello! What is your problem! Coach why is she not getting a technical that was personal and everyone knows it!” Lauren was spouting off as she hobbled over to the free throw line.

“Lo you need to chill or your gonna be the one getting the technical.” Dinah said passing Lauren and taking her spot. 

Lauren was still seething when the ref passed her the ball to shoot. Lauren went through her routine and tried to calm herself down knowing that making this would all but seal the deal for them. Lauren takes two dribbles, spins it out in front of her lets it come back to her, checks her foot position, takes one more dribble, focuses on the hoop and then lets it soar. The deafening sound of a swoosh fills the stadium, followed by loud hooting hollering and cheering coming from the visiting side of the gym.  
Lauren has one more shot to take is she makes this there is no way that the Patriots can win without a miracle of a long distance shot. 

Lauren goes through her routine again, and it hits the rim bounces off the backboard and finally goes in. The Tiger fans, cheerleaders and the bench are on their feet cheering for they know that they have won the game. There is still five seconds to go Lauren tries to guard to block Normani throwing the ball in but can’t do to her ankle. Normani gets the ball to Camila, Camila in turn gets to just past half court and throws up a hail mary. The ball hits the front of the rim as the buzzer sounds, the court is soon filled with black and gold shirts as everyone celebrates their team winning.

Lauren is soon tackled by Dinah and Ally, “Ow...ow guys careful I’m pretty sure that I sprained my ankle when clutzilla landed on me.”

Ally and Dinah laughed as the rest of the team made it over to the trio and dog piled them. “Alright that’s enough guys we need to shake their hands let’s go.” Lauren said trying to get up when Dinah helped her up and through the line.

After the handshakes and the “good games” where said the celebration began for everyone except Lauren who had to go to the training room to get her ankle checked out. Of course Camila was in there too. 

“Are you serious right now. I am not going anywhere near Cabello I don’t want my other ankle to get broke too.”

“Oh just drop it Jauregui. It was an accident I miss stepped.” Camila said grabbing her bag of ice and starting to gather her gear to leave. 

“You can say whatever you like, that doesn’t mean that I have to believe it. Just know that next year you’re not getting a break either. Tigers will be reigning champions again.” Lauren crossed her arms on the table waiting for the trainer to come back.

“Yeah you wish Jauregui. See you on the court.” Camila winked at her as she left. No way I did not just wink at Jauregui...what is wrong with me Camila thought to herself.

“Dinah am I seeing things are did she just wink at me?” Lauren asked confused as to why Camila would do that.

Dinah’s jaw was hanging open when she answered, “umhmm...yeah sh..she did. What the hell could that mean? You two having been fighting since elementary school. Even though I still don’t know what about.”

“Trust me Dinah it’s a long story.” 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lauren walked into the empty gym taking in the new floors and bleachers they got since they won the championship last year. Lauren could literally smell the sawdust that still lingered in the air from the remodel. Lauren bounced the ball on the new floor and just listened to the echo through out the gym. Yep this was her year this was the year that everyone expected her to succeed at, and be damned if she was going to let any of them down.

Soon she was joined by the rest of the girls that were going to try out for the team. Lauren, Dinah, and Ally were all horsing around when their coach came in “Alright girls huddle up I’ve got some news before we start the new season.” Before their coach could finish his sentence the gym doors opened and in walked the Westdale Patriots with Cabello heading the pack.

“What the hell are they doing here coach?” Lauren said glaring at the other team.

“Well since you asked. Y’all heard about the other school catching on fire right? Well it is beyond repairable so we are now one school. Which in turn means that we are one team.” Coach stated giving his best relax stare to Lauren.

Lauren looked at Ally and Dinah with a you have got to be kidding me look. “Seriously all they are going to do is get in the way. We don’t need them coach. This is our year we all worked hard to get where we are you can’t expect us to give up our positions for...them.” Lauren said pointing across the floor.

“Lauren! You are the captain of this team. I expect you to welcome these girls to our school and on our team. How do you think they feel right now being uprooted out of their lives to have to come over to our school? They have to learn new hallways, new teachers, and now they have to learn playing for two coaches instead of one. What I want out of you is to act like the captain that I know you are and drop the attitude and teach them our plays so that we can win not only state but nationals this year. Now with you and Cabello’s play making abilities this team can and will be unbelievable. So do what you do best and get this practice started.” Coach grinned at her.

“Fine let’s do this girls. Everyone on the baseline it’s suicide time.”


	2. Chapter 2

“Are you serious? We have to play with them! Doesn’t coach remember all the pranks they pulled on us and we weren’t allowed to retaliate against them. I mean come on this is bullshit!” Lauren was leaning up against her bike while talking to Dinah after practice.

“Laur we’ll get through this, if our girls want to keep their spots then they have to step up and prove it. Even though Mani and Mila are pretty good and they could be an asset to the team. Plus they are both absolute sweethearts.” Dinah answered back but almost regretted it as soon as she saw Lauren’s face.

“Wow really Dinah and what makes you think that Normani isn’t trying to take your spot on the team, because you know that Cabello’s going to be coming for mine. Just when did you get on a nickname level with them?” Lauren glared at Dinah and straddled her bike.

“Laur! For you information last summer when you left me is when I met Mila.” Dinah crossed her arms and leaned against her car. 

“That wasn’t my fault, you know that I didn’t want to go but I was forced to.” Lauren shot back a sad small smile.

“That’s not the point Lauren. Mani and I have known each other for years almost as long as you and me. Ally and I met her in dance class, she is absolutely amazing and as you saw today she is quick on her feet. Stop judging people when you don’t know them Lauren. Anyways I have to go babysit so call me later and we can study for the test on Friday, okay?” 

Dinah got in her car and looked behind Lauren and nodded “oh yeah your next disaster is coming this way. Please take care of this before it turns into another KC. Love you Laur and just try to accept the other school being here. You never know maybe it could change your life.” With that said Dinah was driving away blasting Beyonce as she went.

Lauren thought about what Dinah said and just shook her head. Lauren turned to her left just in time to see her latest disaster coming her way. Dinah was definitely right this was going to end today. Lauren stepped back off of her bike right as arms and legs wrapped around her body and lips were attached to hers. 

“What’s wrong babe? Did I do something wrong?” Kendall said as she put her feet back onto the ground worried when Lauren didn’t kiss her back. 

Kendall still had her arms around Lauren’s neck and Lauren’s hands were on her hips, but something just didn’t feel right anymore between the two. “Listen Dall we need to talk. I haven’t been feeling this for a while and this year I really need to focus on school and get a scholarship so I can get out of this place. So I hate to tell you but we’re done. Please don’t cry.”

Kendall took a minute to really register everything that Lauren had said and when Lauren looked of course she was crying. “Kendall look..” Kendall pulled away from Lauren’s grasp. 

“No Lauren I get it I’m just another fling. Fine I totally get it but don’t come running to me when you need someplace to crash. I never want to see you again.” Kendall turned and walked off not even trying to hold the tears back.

”Kendall....come on.” Lauren didn‘t want the girl to cry, hell Lauren only crashed with the girl twice so she didn‘t see what the big deal was. 

“Trouble in paradise Jauregui?” Camila ask walking to her car with a smirk on her face.

“Not like it’s any of your business Cabello. One other thing try staying out of my way next practice would ya!” Not waiting for a response Lauren put her helmet on and rode off.

“Lauren! Lauren! Wait! Gosh dang it now how am I going to get home?” Ally yelled for Lauren to stop when she ran out of the building. 

Camila stopped when she heard the yelling and turned around to find the smaller brunette looking lost. “Hey...Ally right? Do you need a ride?”

Ally wasn’t too sure if she should be seen with someone from the other school especially if Lauren found out. “Umm...”

“Look if you’re worried about Jauregui don’t worry I’m not going to tell anyone. I promise. Now come on I don’t bite.” Camila said getting into her car.

Ally looked around but decided what the hell it was better than walking the five miles home.

“So Camila how do you like it here? Everyone treating you okay well besides the obvious?” Ally asked while telling her where to turn.

While keeping her eyes on the road, “Yeah I’m doing okay. Your school has a much better facilities thats for sure. I mean even your gym is...I’ve always liked playing in your gym over ours. Everyone for the most part has been okay. There are a few groups here and there that have blatantly told us how they feel. I think that has a lot to do with Jauregui though.”

“Yeah Lauren for some reason has always choose you to be the center point of her frustrations. I think it is because you give it right back to her and don’t let her walk over you like she does some people.” Ally gave a small smile. “That’s me on the left, blue shutters.” 

“Yeah but with Jauregui it is just all fun for me, I mean have you seen the faces she makes when she gets all fired up. I mean have you seen it when her eyes change from green to a an almost grey green they are priceless and so entertaining. How could you not want to piss her off, oh yeah and winking at her.” Camila started laughing while saying, “you should have seen her face last year after the state game when I did it was so scrunchy and confused looking it was great.” 

Camila couldn’t stop laughing now. “Oh..you like her don’t you?” Camila stopped laughing at that and snapped her head to Ally.

“N..no. I do..don’t. She hates me, there is no way. No.” Camila was having a hard time getting the words out. 

Ally patted Camilas’ hand “I hate to break it to you sweetie but you have the lost in your own world look whenever you were just talking about her.” Camila looked down at her lap, “don’t worry I won’t tell her that would just make her act out further. I’ll keep it to myself. Don’t worry Camila, Lauren will come around and when she does you’ll see that she is actually a real sweetheart. Lauren just always has here guard up. When you get past it you’ll see the real her.” Ally didn’t wait for any kind of response and got out of the car.

“Oh and Camila thanks for the ride I really appreciate it.”

“No problem anytime. See you around Ally.” With good-byes said Ally waved as Camila drove off.  
\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lauren loved the smell of the ocean that is why she chose to take the long way home and take it all in. By the time she got home it was almost seven. Lauren knew her pops was going to be pissed but at least her brother and sister were at sleep overs tonight so she was the only one that would have to take the sting of everything tonight. Lauren decided that she would try to sneak into the house so she walked her bike up the street and parked it on the side of the house. As Lauren began climbing the side of the house to get inside, she would have made it if she wouldn’t have got her foot caught on the lamp cord by her desk and sent it crashing down to the ground. 

“Ouch! Damn it!” Lauren whisper yelled hoping that he didn’t hear.

Soon enough she heard her door being slammed open, “well it’s about time you got home. Do you know how long we’ve been waiting to eat. Don’t even try to say you were up here sleeping and forgot. I checked when I got home and you weren’t here.”

“I’m sorry papi. Practice ran late and so I couldn’t get here but I knew Chris and Tay were out tonight and I thought that you would just make something.” Lauren said all this as she prepared for what she knew was coming.

“Well maybe next time you shouldn’t think so much and just do what is expected of you. Next time it happens you’ll get worse then what you’re about to get.” Lauren could her the malice in her fathers voice, but she knew there was nothing that she could do to stop it.  
\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Alright class pop quiz time.” An audible groan went through the classroom. “That’s enough put your books away and take out and pen and paper.” 

Everyone looked as the door clicked shut, “Aahh Miss Juaregui nice of you to join us this afternoon. Take a seat. Talk to me after class.”

Lauren just nodded and took her seat next to Dinah. “Hey are you okay dawg?”

Lauren just took out a pen and paper and nodded at Dinah. “I’ll just see you at lunch DJ.”

That is all Dinah got out of Lauren so she sent a text to Ally telling her to meet them at their outside table as soon as her class got out.

Camila just happened to be on the other side of Dinah, “what’s up with grumpy pants usually she has all sorts of comebacks?”

Dinah gave a sad smile Lauren’s way, “yeah well we all have our off days. Don’t worry about she’ll be fine and back to her normal snarky self by practice.”

Camila kind of chuckled, “yeah that is what I’m afraid of.”

The bell rang and soon enough that classroom was empty except for Lauren and Dinah. “I’ll get you some food meet us outside today. Yeah?”

“Thanks Dinah.” Lauren gave a small smile as Dinah made her way out. 

“Ally we have a problem Laur came in real late today and she didn’t even do her bitchy comeback thing to the teacher it was like we were back to the KC era.” Dinah said sitting down at the picnic table.

“Did she tell you anything? Or did she do the broody I’ll see you at lunch thing?” Ally asked.

“The second one. I’m pretty sure she will get detention for coming in late too. So then Coach is going to get on her too.” Dinah said with a mouthful of sandwich.

“I wonder what happened this time. Anyways it’s Lauren Juaregui as she would say, and I am invincible.” Both girls started laughing uncontrollably at Ally’s horrible interpretation of Lauren.  
\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lauren walks out of the classroom and goes to her locker throws her stuff inside and slams it shut. Lauren knew going to lunch was just going to spark questions, so she chose to skip it. Then proceeded down to the girls locker room and changes into some shorts and a tee shirt. No tank tops for awhile Lauren thinks to herself. Lauren wraps up her hands and grabs some boxing gloves. Lauren has gym after lunch so she tells coach that she’ll be in the weight room.

Lauren doesn’t notice anything else around her when she is in one of her moods. Lauren puts her headphones in and zones out and lets the music overtake her. Today she has picked the song Blood by In This Moment. Nothing helps her more than swinging at the punching bag and taking all of her frustrations out even when she doesn’t notice the other people present at the time.

“What do you think has got her all worked up to be that angry Mila?” Normani asked while spotting Camila on the bench press.

“I have no idea but something tells me it is something that no one knows about. Nobody has that much aggression and talks about it. I should know.” Mila finishes her reps and trades places with Normani.

“Yeah well if I was you I would try to steer clear today in practice.” Normani struggles with her last reps. “Alright that’s all for me I’m out I’ll see you in practice.” Mani gives Mila a side hug and leaves.

“Yeah bye Mani.” Camila goes back into her cool down routine.

Lauren shirt has since been soaked as the hour she has comes to an end. Lauren looks around and no one is in the weight room so she stripes her shirt knowing that everyone will be in class by now. Lauren gets into the locker room and it is all clear as she walks to her locker to retrieve her shower supplies.

“Oh my God!” someone shrieks from behind Lauren her first instinct is to turn around and hide herself.

“Oh it’s just you Cabello. Why the hell are you screaming?” Lauren takes the sweat soaked shirt in her hands and puts it back on trying to hide the grimace as she lifts her arms.

“Are you okay? Those look like they need some attention. I could...” Camila was automatically cut off by Lauren.

“There’s nothing there just some old scars from my childhood. Don’t talk about things you know nothing about Cabello. Now if you will excuse me I need to take a shower before I go to my next class.” Lauren grabbed her stuff and slammed her locker shut. Shoulder bumping Camila as she walked by. 

“Well I was only trying to help. I’m here if you need anything.” Camila said as she went to her own locker. I need to talk to Dinah and Ally and see if they know anything about this, Camila thought to herself.  
\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Dinah where is Lauren.” Coach yells across the gym.

“I believe she got detention for coming in to biology late today Coach.” Dinah said while taking deep breathes from finishing her suicides.

The girls locker room door slams as Lauren comes running out. “Well speak of the devil. Where have you been Lauren?”

“Detention coach. I swear it won’t happen again.” Lauren said taking her place on the sidelines and stretching to get loosened up.

“Alright who’s ready for a scrimmage? Oh and this time I’m picking the teams.” Coach took out his clipboard and started calling out names. “Juargeui, Hamilton, Jones, Burford, and Hoar, team white. Cabello, Hernandez, Hansen, Rodriguez, and Drommy, team black. The rest of you we will sub in when we find appropriate.”

Lauren notices that basically the coaches just flipped her and Cabello around to see how they worked with the girls from the other teams. “DJ, Ally! I’m sorry you’re going to lose today.”

Dinah and Ally just laugh, “yeah we’ll see about that.” Dinah said tapping Lauren on the back going to her spot.

Camila noticed that Lauren literally froze in place and was trying to hold back tears that could be seen from across the gym let alone her being right next to her she could hear the low groan Lauren made.

“Hey are you sure you’re okay?” Camila asked in a whisper.

Lauren tried to hide the pain in her voice, “yeah I’m fine. Back off Cabello.” Lauren spole through clinched teeth. 

Camila took that as her sign to not ask anymore questions. “Alright then let’s play Jauregui.” Camila made a mental note to take it easy on her.

Hansen and Jones took the tip off and of course Hansen won it. Lauren thought to herself yep that’s my girl as she fell back on defense. Hansen gave the ball to Cabello as they made it across half court and set up the offense. Cabello passed to Ally and made her way down to go through her block when Lauren got shoved in the back and nearly fell over from Dinah nudging her. 

“You okay Dawg? I didn’t even hit you that hard.” Dinah asked sticking out her hand to help Lauren up.

“I’m fine.” Lauren said through gritted teeth. “Let’s just play.” 

“Okay Laur no need to get grumpy now.”

Lauren went back to finding Camila to defend, when a sloppy ball came her way and Lauren stole it and made it to the other end but Cabello wasn’t even trying to stop her. Lauren went to put up a simple lay-up and almost screamed from shooting the ball. Lauren thought she hid the grimace on her face pretty well. 

“Juaregui! What was that? Are you okay or do you need to come out?” The coach yelled knowing something was wrong after seeing Lauren change her lay up shot.

“Coach I’m fine no worries.” Lauren said as she waited at half court for Camila to bring the ball up.

“Don’t play down on me Cabello. Bring it.” Lauren said defending Camila.

Camila passed the ball off, “like you really need me to push you right now. Everyone can tell there is something off about you today. If you keep playing hurt it’s just going to get worse.” 

Lauren knew the block was coming and side stepped around it, “Don’t worry your pretty little head about me Cabello. I have these plays memorized front to back. Besides you should be more worried about why your teammates keep making sloppy plays. Gotta run.” 

Again Ally had thrown a lazy pass and this time Lauren made sure not to grimace when she went up for the layup that she had to do back handed because true to her word was playing her like always.

Another whistle blow “Ally out Ramirez in.”

The game went back and forth the whole practice neither team getting a real jump on the other. It was getting to be the last ten minutes of practice and usually that is when they stopped and did laps and or more suicides. Lauren was happy to just keep playing though and the coaches were liking what they were seeing so they decided to let the game keep going.

“Alright ladies heres the situation. White shirts you are down by three points. Black shirts have the ball. Run the plays. Try your best. Everyone on the sidelines are refs if you see something hanky call it out. Coaches will decide if it’s a foul. Play till the whistle blows. Show us what you got girls.” 

Lauren’s team decided to full court press after their team huddle. Surprisingly the girls were willing to follow her lead. Normani was the only one giving Lauren a hard time. Lauren knew it was her way of sticking up for Camila so she let it go. For now.  
Dinah in-bound the ball to Camila, Camila turned and was automatically double teamed. Camila’s teammates though told her of Lauren’s plan. Camila tried to ignore it but the more she did the more she acted out her instincts to not do what Lauren wanted her to do.

Camila was stuck on the side at her free throw line, instead of throwing to the open man right in front of her she dribbles back out of the double team and passes back to Dinah. Dinah is not that great at bringing the ball up and cautiously starts dribbling up the court when she is blocked and hastily passes it right back to Camila. Camila turns and sees that Lauren and Jones are coming to double team her when Lauren stops at the half court line and just lets Jones take on Camila. The two girls knew each others moves so it was easy for Camila to get around the girl. Camila knew that the battle with Lauren was going to be a little harder though.

Lauren noticed that Camila was playing weird almost like she didn’t want to do what was right there in front of her. Lauren picked up on the fact that the girls on her team were letting the other girls win. Normani was actually the only one that was doing what Lauren had suggested and Normani was at least trying to make her teammates stick to the plan but anyone could see that they were failing. Lauren did the only thing she could think of and let the ball come to half court and forget about the press. 

Lauren called out “Zone girls” seeing as they hadn’t decided on what they were going to call the plays yet wit the merging. All her girls fell back into a zone stance and waited to see what Camila did in response. Camila came up the right side and dribbled the ball through her legs over to her left hand. Camila tried to drive around Lauren but couldn’t quite seem to get around her, so Camila did the next best thing and passed to Rodriguez and cut towards the basket to get open. Rodriguez threw an ally oop kind of pass for Camila but the whole team saw it and it was soon stolen by Lauren’s team.

Normani stole the ball and saw Lauren making her way down the court. Normani threw a hail mary pass to Lauren which she had to reach for. Camila was the closest to Lauren and when her jersey rode up Camila froze where she was making it to where Lauren made the easy lay-up and now put there team within one point with thirty seconds left to play. Camila still couldn’t seem to move until Dinah ran by her to throw the ball in. “Hey Mila you alright?”

It took Camila a sec and then, “Uh..umm yeah I mean yeah why wouldn’t I be. Can we talk after practice?”

“Yeah sure why not.” Dinah responded as she threw Camila the ball.

Camila from this point on was off of her game when she was bringing the ball up she dribbled off of her foot and out of bounds. Turning over possession to Lauren’s team. Normani in bounded the ball into Lauren and she started the offense. Lauren spotted Jones open underneath and bullet passed her the ball and Jones made a short jumper to put their team ahead by one. However Drommy who was guarding Lauren ran into her pretty hard and knocked her on her back. Lauren punched the floor with side of her fist and stood up trying not to show the pain that she was in when she laid into Drommy. 

“What the hell Darcy! Did you really need to bull rush me I didn’t even have the freaking ball. You really need to pay more attention to what the hell you’re doing out here. This is why we practice at half speed, in a real game you would have just cost us our chance at winning. There is a reason you were a sub last year.”

“Juaregui!! Your done for the day go shower and get out of here. Be early tomorrow to make up your laps you missed today. Oh and lose the attitude.” Coach yelled as he brought everyone else in for a team huddle.

Lauren wasted no time in grabbing her stuff and leaving the gym. Lauren threw her equipment in her locker and changed back into street clothes and grabbed her helmet and made her way outside and was gone in an instant. 

 

“Alright girls nice practice. Cabello you got anything?” Coach asked.

“Umm..actual yeah. I know that this is not an ideal situation all of us being thrown into one school to play together on one team but the other team was actually telling me strategies while we were playing. Heres the thing we would never tell our opponents our plays when we are playing them so why do it when we are trying to become one team. If everyone would just drop the rivalry that we had then things could work out great. Think about it we were the top two teams in the state last year, what makes you think that everyone wouldn’t want to be in our position right now. We can take the amazing talent and skills of the two teams and make it into the most epic teams anyone has ever seen. With Lauren’s play making ability and Normani’s swiftness and Dinah you are actually one heck of a rebounder we never had that on our team before. Ally I know that you were having an off day but your three pointers are to die for. If my fellow teammates would have actually played today instead of trying to put Lauren under the bus then yeah maybe the coaches would have seen your potential. Now as for me from now on it’s not about what mascot that I play for it will be about the team that I get put on. I will play a hundred and ten percent every game and practice just as hard. Now who’s with me?” Camila ended with putting her hand out into the middle of the circle.

Some of the girls were shell shocked at Camila’s words but nearly every one on the team put their hands into the middle. A few girls decided that they didn’t want to partake and just simply walked out of the gym. For the most part though everyone had smiles on their faces as they thought of how great their season would be.

“Let’s got team.” They all cheered throwing their hands in the air and ending the practice. 

“Mila what’s up with that speech it was amazing. What did you want to talk to me about?” Dinah said link her arm with Mila’s.

“Um..do you know what was up with Lauren today? Did you notice that she seemed... off?” Mila asked.

“For as long as I have known Lauren she has off days. They come every once in a while and by the next day she is usually fine. I will tell you one thing though she hates talking about it so I would just let it go.” Dinah replied nonchalantly as they walked into the locker room.

“Oh okay, I guess, thanks Dinah see you tomorrow.” Mila grabbed her ball and went back into the gym.

 

“Coach is it okay if I stay for a while?”

“Yeah it’s cool but don’t go out the door without everything or you’ll have to wait till tomorrow to get it.”

“Okay thanks.”

Camila worked on everything heck she had even gotten the Tigers playbook and was going over the movements of the plays. Camila wanted this to be a great season but she knew that her biggest task was going to be getting Lauren to drop her bad ass exterior and play as a team. Camila stopped running plays and was working on her free throws when she heard the locker room doors open and in ran two cute little kids. One was a boy maybe ten years old with dark hair and bright blue eyes. The little girl looked a couple years younger and had light brown hair and brown eyes. They were laughing as they came in and didn’t notice Camila yet. 

“Hey were did you two little rascals go? You do know that if you get to far away from me the tickle monster comes out.” Lauren came around the corner laughing as the two younger ones took of giggling to get away from her. Camila couldn’t help but smile at the scene in front of her. That was until Lauren noticed her and froze and crossed her arms across her chest and just glared at Camila. 

“What are you doing in here? There is never anyone here this late.” Lauren said.

“The coaches said it would be okay if I stayed for a little while. I must of lost track of time.” Camila said defensively. 

“Tay, Chris why don’t you guys go sit on the mats and watch a movie, okay? Chris it’s Taylor’s turn to pick.”

“Okay Lawren.” Chris said through his two missing front teeth.

“Listen I am not here to...arrgghhh...ouch Taylor please get down.” Lauren said trying to get Taylor off of her back when she bent down to tie her shoes.

“Lolo are you okay, I’m sorry. Please don’t hurt me Lolo.” Taylor said crying and shielding herself from what Lauren might do.

“No come here Taytay I would never in a million years hurt you. You’re my little sunshine and you make me smile even when I’m having a horrible day. Please baby I won’t be like him I promise.” Lauren said through tears she didn’t know she had and opened her arms waiting for Taylor to run into them.

Lauren picked Taylor up and walked over to Chris, “just so you know I meant my promise to you too okay buddy?”

“Yeah Lawren. I know I think Taylor just gets scared easily now. He tried to catch us earlier that is why we were in the tree house. I did like you said and we went up there and locked the door thingy until you got home. Lawren I was so scared.” Chris was now in tears, so of course just hugged the two tighter not caring that they were hurting her back.

“Will you two be okay now or do you want to go somewhere else?” Lauren asked with them still in her arms.

“No Lolo. I like the boom boom that the ball makes.” Lauren looked at Taylor confused.

Then it dawned on Lauren, “oh you mean the echo got it kid.” Lauren said messing up the girls hair.

“Alright pick a movie Tay. I’ll try not to be to late.”

Lauren turned and Camila was still there with a look of not pity but almost empathy on her situation. Now that Camila had heard a little bit of it she knew that the girl was going to want to know what was going on. In a way Lauren was still cautious about what she was willing to tell the other point guard. 

“Well okay so those are my brother and sister in case you didn’t get that. Chris and Taylor. They’re ten and nine, and yeah some bad shit has happened to us. So here’s the thing if you’re going to use whatever you just saw to tell the whole school you can leave now. If you just want to shoot around for a little while then let’s do this but just so you know I’m not going to talk about it so don’t even try.” Lauren grabbed her ball and started taking close jump shots to get warmed up.

“Okay then I guess.” Camila grabbed her ball and started to shoot around too. 

Everything was quite except for the sound of a peter pan playing in the background and two basketballs being dribbled around the gym.

“Lauren?”

“Yeah”

“You know they fell asleep right?” Camila said pointing over to the two younger kids.

“Yeah they always fall asleep while I am practicing in here it is kind of like a tradition in a way.”

“The noise doesn’t bother them I take it.”

“The only time it bothers them is if I were to get mad and slam the ball down. I only did it once and I will never do it again. Besides I think they understand that they are safe here. I mean you have to have a key to get in. So they know he can’t get to us here.” Lauren said trying to keep the back of her shirt from touching her.

“Okay I know you don’t want to talk about it. Will you please let me look at your back though? I can tell that it’s hurting you and plus your shirt has some blood spots on it now.” Camila said with hands held in the air as if to say no harm coming from this way. 

Lauren thought about it for a minute and knew that she needed to at least have someone take a look at them so she agreed. Lauren crossed her arms and pulled her jersey up over her head wincing as she did.

“Oh my god Lauren!”


	3. Chapter 3

Nothing could have prepared Camila with what she saw on Lauren’s back, Camila knew it had to be bad but never thought it would be this bad. Camila could almost see what the brand name of what looked like a belt could have been used on Lauren.

”Will they be okay out here?”

”Yeah they‘ll be asleep for the rest of the night if I don‘t move them.”

“Lauren who did this?” Camila asked taking Lauren’s hand as she walked them into the locker room to get the first aid kit.

Lauren said nothing. Pulling her hand out of Camila’s and with a few tears leaving her eyes she just sat down on one of the benches straddling it so Camila could do what she needed to do.

“Okay I get it. You don’t have to talk about it. But just know that if you ever want to I am more than willing to listen. Oh and this is probably going to hurt.” 

Camila said as she came over to Lauren. Camila winced at the thought of someone close to Lauren doing this maybe that is why the girl was angry all the time. Just maybe this was why she was a bitch to everyone. 

“Hey Lauren lay down because it will be easier.”

Camila decided she would start from the top of Lauren’s back and make her way down as the ones at the top were not as deep as the ones towards the middle of her back. As Camila was cleaning up the new freshly made scars she could see the raised tissue from the old scars and she herself started to shed a few tears. No one no matter what deserved this kind of torture. Camila took the rubbing alcohol and started to slowly pour it over the mincing looking bloody welts that covered Lauren. With every new time she poured Lauren let out a small groan. Camila could tell that Lauren was gritting her teeth trying not to show the pain.

“Lauren you can scream, cry, kick, do whatever you want I cross my heart that I will never tell anyone. This will always be kept just between us.” Camila said trying to make the girl relax.

Lauren turned her head from laying on her arms looking at the lockers to facing down into her arms and all she could do was cry nothing else would come to her just the tears she had for Tay and Chris if he would have caught them instead of her. Sobs started racking there way through Lauren’s body as she tried to stay still for Camila. 

Camila didn’t know the girl had so much pain in her. “Lauren if it is too much I can stop.” Camila said side hugging Lauren to let her know that she was there for her.

“No that’s not it, just finish it up would you please.” Lauren said through her tears.

“Okay all done for now but Lauren you really need to get these checked out. My mom would be more than willing to look at them for you.” Camila said as she finished putting the last bandage on Lauren’s back.

“No it’s alright I’ll be fine. You can’t tell her Camila! You just can’t okay?” Lauren looked at Camila with a desperate you need to understand me kind of look. 

“Okay I won’t tell her, I promise.” Camila threw her hands up in defense.

Lauren got up and found a hoodie in her locker and put it on disposing of the jersey in her locker. Camila found herself not being able to tear her eyes away from Lauren’s body.

“What? Is it really that bad?” Lauren asked when she turned around and noticed Camila staring at her.

“Umm...we-well. I’m not gonna lie it is pretty bad. You need to put medicine on it everyday there are a couple of spots that are really bad.” Camila tried to regain herself after being caught.

“Yeah I’ll be alright. Thanks though.” Lauren said as she walked out to the gym to check on her siblings.

“Yeah no problem.” Camila said as she followed Lauren out. “Do you want me to give you all a ride home.

“No we will be okay. I got them.” Lauren said putting a blanket on top of the kids.

“Alright then I guess I will see you tomorrow then. Good night Lauren.”

“Good-night Cabello. Thanks again.” Lauren said.

Lauren pulled out one of the extra mats and got as comfortable as she could on it and text Dinah.

To Bestie 4Life : Hey do you think that your mom can take the kids to school in the morning again if I meet you when she drops you off?

From Bestie 4Life : Yeah she says that is cool. See you in the morning Laurenza.

With that taken care of Lauren set her alarm and was soon fast asleep snuggled up with her brother and sister.

 

Camila drove the long way home perplexed at just what she should do. I mean yeah she had promised Lauren that she wouldn’t tell anyone but yet she knew that someone close to her was beating her senseless. Camila couldn’t help the tears that started to fall when she walked in the door of her house. 

“Mija?! What’s wrong baby are you okay? Are you hurt?” Camila’s mom said as soon as she saw her daughter. Wrapping Camila up in a hug as soon as she took a once over of her body to make sure there was no blood. 

“Camila baby is it that Jauregui girl again? I swear I am going to call that school tomorrow and give them a piece of my mind!” 

“No no mom please don’t do that. It is nothing really I just have a lot on my mind and it finally caught up to me that is all really. Please momma don’t call the school Lauren didn’t do anything to me. I promise.” Technically she didn’t lie. Camila did have a lot on her mind and Lauren did not hurt her at all today, on purpose anyways.

“Alright mija, I won’t call. However you have to know that I am only trying to look out for you sweetie. Now are you hungry? I will make you something if you are. Do you want to talk about it?” Camila’s mom put her at an arms length.

“Can I have some fried plantains?” Camila asked wiping the tears from her eyes, and kicking her shoes off.

“Ohh, mija I should have known. Go clean yourself up and meet me in the kitchen.” Her mom said as she kissed Camila’s forehead and made her way to the kitchen.

Camila went and threw some cold water on her face, thinking the whole time about what to do. Camilas heart ached for her to spill Lauren’s secret but her brain told her that she would only betray Lauren’s trust. Since Camila had just now gained it she didn’t want to throw it away so soon but yet she felt she needed to tell someone that Lauren was in trouble. First the girl is pissed at her for no reason that she knows of and then of course she goes and makes her feel bad for her because it might all be caused by something that she has absolutely no control over. Aaarrrggggghhhhh, Camila slams her hands against the counter.

“Kaki? Was that you?” a sweet sleepy little voice breaks Camila out of her thoughts.

“Hey princess. I’m sorry I didn’t mean to wake you up. Why don’t you go back to bed sweetie.” Camila said picking up the girl and giving her a hug.

“Kaki why were you crying? Did someone hurt you again?” the little girl ask drowsily.

“No baby no one is bullying me anymore. I took care of that for now. I was cry because someone I know is in a horrible situation and there is nothing that I can do about it because they asked me to keep it a secret.” Camila said placing her sister back in her bed and tucking her in. 

“Tell you the truth, I think this girl is very brave for what she is doing. Also I think that she is very stupid for not telling anyone. I just wish that I knew how to help her, how to make her see that not everyone in this world is like who ever this person is that is hurting her. The worse part is that she is an amazing person especially to her little brother and sister, and she has these intense green eyes that look like that world has been shattered in. I just wish she would let me help her, let me show her scars to momma, Sofi I want to show this girl that she can be loved.”

Camila looked down and Sofi was already sound asleep again. Camila placed a kiss on her forehead and turned around to find her mom standing in the hallway, leaning against the wall with her arms crossed. “How much of that did you hear?”

“I heard all of it mija. Now will you tell me who is in trouble?” Sinu said as she walked with Camila to the kitchen with her arm around her.

“I can’t momma. I just can’t I just earned this persons trust I can’t exactly break it two hours after I gained it.” Camila broke down in tears again. 

“Alright sweetie I understand. Just know that I am here okay? Please come to me if things do get too serious.” Camila sat down and took the plate of food her mom gave her and started eating.

“Oh and mija when where you going to tell me that you liked this girl? Which by the way your father and I are perfectly okay with, and he owes me twenty dollars and a weeks worth of dishes.” Sinu said laughing at the thought of Alejandro doing the dishes.

Camila nearly chocked on her food, “Umm...h..h..how did you get that I liked her. You made a bet on my sexuality?!”

Sinu walked around the island and rubbed Camila’s back, “oh honey you talked about that girl like you wanted to protect her from any wrong doing. Your father and I have known since you were a little girl, you never wanted to play with the girls it was always basketball and snapbacks. That and you have never once shown in interest in a guy. Look at the posters in your room, they are all girls and girl bands. We love you mija but you were really bad at hiding it.” Sinu kissed Camila’s head. “Put the dishes in the sink and then get to bed.”

Camila finished eating and just sat there thinking that she had always worried about whether or not her parents would accept her like her friends had. Now she just laughs at everything her mom had just said, and damn if from an outside perspective if everything she said wasn’t true. Camila laughed to herself as she placed the dishes in the sink and made her way upstairs to bed. Getting ready and laying in her bed thinking about how she could get Lauren to trust her enough to let her help. How do you make someone that is so hurt and secretive to want to tell you their deep dark secret? As Camila tried to sleep that thought tortured her brain for the rest of the night.  
\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It had been a week since the night in the gym and Camila was never alone with Lauren again to ask her any questions. The good news was that she had made the team the only bad part was the her and Lauren were co-captains together and boy did Lauren not like that. It seemed that Lauren crawled back into her old self again with the hateful remarks towards everyone and even more so towards Camila which she found odd considering that she could have told Lauren’s secret to the world by now. 

The girls very first game was tomorrow and everyone was excited to see how the power team of the year was going to play. The only problem was the two teams still weren’t getting along, Lauren’s teammates would follow her instructions and Camila’s would follow hers. The coaches just looked at each other and weren’t exactly sure how they were going to fix the problems with the girls getting along. Both coaches came to the conclusion that it was most likely the battle between the two captains that had all the other girls not wanting to piss off their friends.

“Alright huddle up girls.” Everyone ran over to the coaches. Even in the huddle the patriots were off to one side and the tigers on the other side but neither coach was really sure on what to do to fix it.  
\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Alright for those of you that are just tuning in this game is like a coin toss it keeps going back and forth as the brand new spanky Tigers keep trading off three players all the time to try and run different plays. This new super team is just not playing the way that they have the potential to play. It look like the cause of the destruction has got something to do with the two captains Lauren Jauregui and Camilla Cabello not getting along. Even when the two teams played each other from across the city they butted heads. If these two girls don’t find a way to come and play together it looks like this national seeded team will not make it out of the division this year.” The announcer filled people in during the time out.

“Listen you two you need to cut the bull crap and start playing like the players I know you both are or I am going to bench both of you for the rest of the game. So here’s the deal Lauren you are point guard for the rest of the game no more changing it up that means all the old Patriots you in bound it to Lauren unless she is completely blocked. Got It!” All the players nodded their heads at their frustrated coach. “Camila you are the first wing guard I have seen you play the position I know that you can make it work. With that said Lauren pass the ball to her if she is open. I mean it if you two don’t start playing like a team I’m pulling you. Hands in!” Coach gave both girls a warning look as the took the floor.

It was Tiger ball and they were down by five. Camila decided to throw the ball in so she could say something to Lauren. “Listen let’s just win this game I will run the plays just like everyone else on the team. We can go back to hating each other as soon as the finally buzzer sounds okay?”

Lauren took the time to see the sincerity in Camila’s deep chocolate brown eyes that she got when she was pissed off. “Alright deal. Now let’s go.”

From then on it was no longer two players getting left out of the plays. Lauren did what she was told and passed to Camila when she was open and she even found herself passing more and more to Normani who like everyone said was actually surprisingly agile on her feet and seemed to always be able to get open.

At the end of the third quarter the girls had made the score 65 to 54 with them back on top. 

“See girls that is what I am talking about all you had to do was put your egos behind you and everything is working out. Now let’s keep this up for the last quarter. Lauren, Camila great job so far keep it up. Normani great job on finding the open spaces. hands in girls let’s do this.”

Dinah in bounded the ball to Lauren as the other team started a full court press. Lauren called out “Ginger! Ginger!” and everyone scrambled to get where they were suppose to be. Lauren saw Normani was open and passed the ball, Normani found Camila across the half court and got the ball to her. Camila took the ball to the base line and waited for the rest of her team to get across the line she passed the ball back to Normani. Normani soon sent it back to Lauren but as the pass went two opposing players dove for the ball effectively ramming right into Lauren and make her the inside of a human sandwich. Camila saw the pain shoot across Lauren’s face as the ref called a foul on both players.

Lauren fell to her knees on the ground in pain, trying her hardest not to backlash at the other team because she knew the ref would give her a technical. As she thought it and yep low and behold that ref was just waiting with his whistle in his mouth for her to start. Camila was the first person to get to Lauren. “Hey did they hit the spot?”

“Yeah, why the hell else would I be in so much pain?” Lauren said through gritted teeth and an angry glare to the ref.

“Do you need to go off or can you handle it?” Camila helped Lauren back up to her feet.

“I’m fine.” Lauren said aimed at the coaches so they wouldn’t pull her from the game.

“Are you really fine? Or do you just not want to leave the game?” Camila asked as they made their way to the side line.

“Really Camila I am fine. I will be alright. Now let’s play and beat these hoodlums.” Lauren tried to laugh off the pain.

Camila passed the ball in to Lauren and then started to make the move for the play. Camila noticed that the other team had changed up to a man to man defense. Lauren though didn’t call a play change and she didn’t know why and then it hit her as Lauren bulleted a pass to Dinah on the block and Dinah sunk it.

Camila took it as she would call the play next time down the court as she ran down to get on defense. The other team was still playing man to man offense. They tried passing to an open player on the three point line on the side but Normani saw it coming and snatched it out of the air. Normani saw Lauren and Camila both take off down the court, she threw it to Camila who then passed it to Lauren for the lay-up. Lauren shot it and one of the other team members slapped her on the back. The ref didn’t call anything as Lauren stayed down in pain this time.

The coaches called a time out when they saw Lauren not getting up. Camila again was by her side. “Lauren you need to go out they are going for your back now. They know it is your soft spot.” Camila tried to get Lauren to take a breather.

“No I’m fine I am not leaving this game just because they think they have me beat. I will never let him win.” Lauren gritted out trying not to spill the tears in her eyes.

“Lauren you don’t have to prove anything to anyone here. We all know that you are strong and brave, but Lauren they are just going to hurt you more so you have to take care of yourself first.” Camila tried to argue with Lauren. Camila saw Lauren’s eyes break a little at her words.

“No Camila I will stay in because I will prove to him that I won’t break no matter how many times he hurts me. I will show him that I am and always will be stronger than him.” Camila followed Lauren’s eyesight trying to find who she was talking about but there were just to many people in the way.

“No one is saying that you are not strong enough here Lauren but you need a breather or you are going to go off on one of those girls and we need you. You can see plays happening out of everything so please go sit for a minute a cool off a little bit.” Camila tried again.

“See that is where you are wrong Cabello, I got this and these girls aren’t going to break me. So let’s go, let’s play.” Lauren said standing up and running down the court.

Camila just shrugged her shoulders at the coaches and made her way to the other end of the court. The game continued like that for the rest of the quarter. The whole other team when ever they were on Lauren would bump into her back to try and make her do something. Anyone that knew Lauren knew that she was just building it up on the inside and that as soon as this game was over she was going to explode.

The game ended with the Tigers beating the Wolves 92 to 63 only because they were focused on hurting Lauren rather than actually playing. The girls all shook hands and said good game except Lauren said nothing to the other team as they all tried to slap her on the back when she passed. Camila however was right behind Lauren and stopped all their pathetic attempts.

Everyone showered and changed while Lauren just sat on the bench waiting for everyone to leave. “So I will see you back at the house in a little while right dawg?” Dinah asked when she was done.

“Yeah I will be there in a little bit I just need to work off some steam. Don’t put them to bed without me okay?” Lauren said getting up and grabbing her hand wrap.

“Sure thing girly. Hey if you lose track of time I am putting them to bed and you can just stay over okay?” Dinah put her hand on Lauren’s shoulder. “Take it easy tonight okay don’t go wrecking your shoulder again.”

Lauren turned and gave Dinah a hug “Thanks for always being there Dinah you’re a good friend. I promise I won’t kill myself this time.”

“Alright bye Laurenza.” and with that Dinah was out the door.

Lauren grabbed her i-pod out of her bag and headed to the weight room. Lauren cranked her music and put on the first loudest song she came to. Lauren stripped out of her jersey as soon as she knew no one was around. Lauren then proceeded to imagine his smug face she saw during the game on the bag and just pounded the life out of the bag. Lauren just kept punching until she had absolutely nothing left to give and then just collapsed on the floor in tears.

Camila found Lauren sitting on her knees crying into her hands and her back looked even worse and she had fresh bruises on her rib cage know.

“Jesus Christ Lauren! What the hell! Who is doing this to you?” Camila said running over to Lauren and holding her as she sobbed. 

Camila sat there rubbing patterns on Lauren’s side as it was the only place that didn’t have bruises or welts. Camila waited patiently for Lauren to calm down and then she tried talking to the distraught girl again. “Lauren will you please let me get you some help. Where are you brother and sister? Are they safe?”

Lauren sat back and looked Camila in the eyes. “Dinah has them, so yeah they are good.” Lauren took Camila’s hands in hers “why do you care about getting me help when all I do is tear you down?”

Camila was a little taken a back by Lauren’s question. I mean Lauren was right wasn’t she, the only time that Lauren had even acknowledge her presence the last week was when they were in practice and Lauren was calling out plays or telling her that she needed to step it up. However there was something that pulled Camila to Lauren like she was meant to help the girl. Camila never could tell what that feeling was she attracted to her or was it just a your broken and she wanted to help fix her kind of thing. Camila didn’t know, she knew that Lauren needed help and for some reason Camila wanted to see happiness in Lauren’s dulled green eyes. Camila wanted to see the girl like she was last year all bright and shining. What Camila really wanted to do was kiss the girl to make her see that at least one person really did love her. Woah! Wait a minute really love Camila? You can’t be serious snap out of it. Okay so maybe it was really really likes her, yeah that sounds way better.

“See I told you no one actually really cares I mean hell you can’t even tell me why you want to help me. You’re probably just thinking of a way to tell my secret to the world so they can all laugh at me and then you can run this school. I’m right aren’t I?”  
Lauren said as she pulled away from Camila completely. Camila couldn’t take it anymore she needed to know so that she could help the girl.

 

“No Lauren I am sorry but yeah I do care about you I don’t know why when all you have ever been is an asshole to me. You know what though I can tell that you are just putting up a mask so that you don’t have to let anyone in. Heck even your two best friends don’t even know anything about this that has got to tell you something. Even I saw the change that you made on the court tonight no one else did but me. I saw when you broke and you went into bitchy mood. Now tell me who the hell is hurting you, please.” Camila asked as she grabbed Lauren’s face and made her look at her.

Lauren’s eyes started to fill with tears again, “again why do you care what is in this for you?”

“Lauren I swear to God if you don’t tell me I will find out and then I won’t be able to control myself from calling that person out. Damn it I have seen you with your brother and sister and I saw how happy you were with them that night. It was a totally different person then what I saw tonight, and every other day for that matter. I get it if you feel that you need to give it to the man, but here is the thing not everyone is out to hurt you not everyone is here to break down your spirit. Dinah and Ally have shown that they are amazing friends to you. When I first got here I tried to get them to tell me why you do the things you do. You know what they said?”

Lauren just shook her head and kept staring into Camila’s amazing deep chocolate eyes and was comforted by the warmth that the girls hands were giving off.

“The truth is they said that you only do this stuff when you are having a bad day and that eventually you would get over us Patriots trying to take over your territory and then settle down and then you would be a soft teddy bear. Well guess what I know that that is a mask too. I know that you want the world to know the pain that you are in but yet you don’t want to show it then because you are afraid that people are going to look at you like your weak. Well guess what, no one is going to look at you like that if you would just tell me who the hell could hurt such an amazing, intelligent, beautiful, talented, gorgeous girl that you are.” Camila blurted out the last part and searched Lauren’s eyes for the answer.

Lauren didn’t know what to say not once in her life had anyone called her beautiful except for her mom. Lauren didn’t know what else to do and looked into Camila’s searching eyes and found that she was telling the truth. Lauren still didn’t want to answer the question but she did know what she really wanted to do at that moment and so she did. Lauren had been holding it back for years. Before Camila could even brace herself Lauren was crashing her lips to Camila’s and soon Camila couldn’t resist and kissed Lauren back.


	4. Chapter 4

Nothing prepared Lauren for the reactions her body got from kissing Camila. Lauren felt alive again, she hadn’t felt this way since before her mom died. Camila was the one that deepened the kiss as Lauren brought her hands to Camila’s hips trying to bring the girl closer to herself. Lauren wasn’t sure where any of this was coming from. Did she really like Camila or was it just because Camila was the first person in her life to actually care about her. Why though? Why would anyone care about her? That’s right no one cares. The voice filtered through her thoughts. 

Lauren again was pulled out of her thoughts as Camila’s hands had made there way behind Lauren’s head and where playing with the little hairs back there. Knowing that they need to breathe soon Lauren pulled back from the kiss. Lauren looked at Camila’s eyes that where still shut as Camila tried to calm herself down enough to look at Lauren. All Lauren heard though was a small, “woah” as Camila opened her eyes and looked back into bright emerald eyes. The amount of hope that she could see in Lauren’s eyes made her think that maybe she had finally gotten through to the girl.

Lauren wasn’t sure why but she was smitten with Camila and wanted to find out more about the girl now that she wasn’t trying to destroy her on the court. “Um, would you maybe want to get out of here and go get some ice cream or something?” Lauren asked nervously. 

Camila was taken aback by the fact that Lauren wanted to go out with her like in public where people could see that they were talking to each other. I mean wasn’t it Lauren that was the one that initiated all of the tearing down as she put it. What was Lauren getting at by wanting her to go out with her I mean there had to be a motive right? Was it to get at her for trying to be a part of the team? Was it some ploy to get under her skin?

“Hey if you don’t want to all you had to say was no?” Lauren said with a rejected tone that was turning harsh, when Camila said nothing for a good minute.

“No. I mean yeah ice cream sounds great, but Lauren can I put some bandages on your welts again because they look like they’re infected?” Camila said bashfully.

“Yeah I think that would be okay but let me take a shower first maybe then it will be a little easier.” Lauren said grabbing her stuff and holding the door waiting for Camila to walk through.

Who was this girl and why doesn’t she show this side of herself more often, maybe then more people would truly care about her and she would have more people to rely on. “Yeah that probably would be better.” Camila grabbed her things and walked next to Lauren back to the locker room.

Lauren grabbed her stuff and went into the shower, as Camila grabbed her phone and texted her mom. 

To Birthgiver : I am going out to get some ice cream with a girl from the team. I let you know later when I will be home.

From Birthgiver : That is fine and does it happen to be a date with the girl you like from the team?

To Birthgiver : OMG mom.....can I stay the night at Mani’s it’s the weekend....please Mami?

From Birthgiver : Your dad so owes me another twenty and yeah you can stay at Normani’s just let me know when you get there

To Manibear : Hey can I stay at yous later possibly?

From Manibear : I am actually at Dinah’s but she said that it is cool if you wanna stay at her house its gonna be a big sleep over anyways with all these kids here.

To Manibear : Kk that actually works out better for me right now...gtg ttyl!!

Camila finished up talking when Lauren came out of the shower with sweat pants on and a towel wrapped around her shoulders, hiding her upper body Camila just watched as Lauren laid down on the bench exactly like she had the time before. All Camila could do at the moment though was stare at the way Lauren’s back muscles moves with every stretch and strain. Even if they were covered with scars Camila still wanted to feel the way they would move under her fingers.

“Camila are you going to help me or just stand there all night?” Lauren asked looking behind her.

Camila snapped out of her trance and made her way over to help clean Lauren up. Camila tried as hard as she could to not put a lot of pressure on Lauren’s back. Camila never wanted to let Lauren feel pain again. That is when Camila knew that she had bigger feelings for the green-eyed beauty than she would ever had liked to admit. 

As Camila was tending to Lauren’s back she took a chance and asked Lauren again. “Lauren have you thought about trying to go see someone about these? I mean Lauren some of them are...”

Before Camila could finish her sentence Lauren was telling her “NO! I can’t not yet. Not right now.”

Camila was at least getting somewhere now. Lauren gave her a little more even if Camila had absolutely no idea what that was yet. “Why not Lauren? Please? Who is doing this to you?” Camila hurried and wiped the tear away before Lauren would notice.

Lauren sat up and tried to look Camila in the eyes but immediately turned her head and looked at the floor. “I just can’t. I can’t let anyone else get hurt because of him.” If anyone finds out, things will get worse. I’m not just talking about you Lauren. 

Camila noticed the fear that seemed to come over Lauren’s face even though she was trying to hide it. “Lauren? Can we stop this rivalry and just be friends? I mean I would really like it if we could just get over whatever it was that got in between us.”

Lauren for the first time had a thought of pure happiness and then his words popped back into her head “no matter who you try to hide from me I will find them and make them pay for you being like that.” The pure disgust that she could hear from his words was still present in her mind. Lauren could still see the look that he had given her when he found out that she was gay. Nothing would ever be able to take that way. “I think we could try.”   
\------------------- 

“So Dinah have you noticed that Lauren has been off of her game lately? I mean has she started to be more distant with you too?” Ally said as she grabbed some pillows and blankets and got comfortable on the floor.

“Yeah! Lauser hasn’t even been grilling everyone at practice anymore. I mean she is there and trying to keep the team together but it’s like she is just running through the motions. You did notice that she hasn’t ate lunch with us since the first week of practice right? I mean she grabs something says hey and then is running out the door. Really I mean where is she going all the time?” Dinah said as she got comfortable on her bed.

“We should follow her one day and find out where she’s going!” Ally said mimicking how a ninja would move.

Dinah and Normani laughed at Ally’s antics. “You two don’t have to follow her I know where she’s going.” Normani said as she kept playing the game on t.v..

Dinah and Ally both looked at the girl and waited not so patiently for her to spill the beans and when Mani didn’t say anything Ally threw a pillow at the girl to get her attention. “Well tell us where!”

Mani paused the game and turned to her new friends. “Oh yeah she has been going to the weight room, usually on the bag and every so often kick boxing.” Mani said it all like it was nothing and then went back to her game.

“How do you even know this?” Ally threw her hands up when she shrugged her shoulders at Dinah.

“Mila has followed her a couple of times and that is where they always end up.. The last two times I have tried to find Mila her and Lauren have been coming out of the locker room together and actual getting along. Well at least it looks like Lauren is making an effort to get along. Lauren mostly just lets Mila chat about whatever it is they are talking about.” Mani raised her hands in the air as she took the high score for the match she was playing.

“Wait so does that mean that Lauren is dropping the whole the Patriots are invading our school ploy?” Dinah asked curiously. 

Ally and Mani just shrugged their shoulders, just as the doorbell rang and Dinah ran downstairs to grab some pizza for them all.  
Dinah came back in with a piece of pizza in her mouth and a box for all of them.

“Mila and Laur are so on their own with my siblings for their pizza. It was hard enough getting this one.” All the girls laughed as they dug into the pizza in front of them.

“Do you think that Lauren is just pushing the rivalry thing to the side for the sake of the team. I mean there had to be a reason for Lauren being that mad at someone right?” Ally asked as she took a bite.

“Well if it helps I know that Mila might have a crush on Lauren. That could be why she is trying to get through to her all the time. That or Mila is just trying to be a really good co-captain.” Mani added with a wink and a smirk.

Dinah and Ally looked at Mani a little taken aback, neither of them had any clue that Mila was into girls too. 

“Well that makes a lot more sense now.” Dinah said sitting back against her headboard.

“I think that it is time that we had a little talk with our dear best friend Lauser and see what exactly she has against this girl because I am sorry but those two would make the absolutely cutest couple.” Ally said all excited.

“Oh my gosh yeah they can be our little Camren ship!” Dinah was getting way too excited about a relationship that may or may not happen and Ally knew it.

“Alrighty there DJ don’t get too ahead of yourself. How about we get the two girls to get along first and then we can worry about what ship name that we give them.” Ally and Mani were laughing at Dinah and her enthusiasm for something that hadn’t happened yet. 

“I can’t help it that I’m excited for Lauren to finally be happy. I mean have you seen and heard the girl she is always brooding and depressed looking. It would be nice to see her happy.” Dinah stated.

“Yeah okay I gotcha there girl. Now what movie are we watching?” Mani asked turning the game off. 

“I vote for Life is but a Dream!!!” Dinah yelled.

“Aaahhh!! No way!! You’re a B fan too!! I knew I liked you gurl!!” Mani said tackling Dinah to the bed.

Ally started to tune the both of them out when she heard one of the kids wake up. “I’ll be right back guys.” Ally noticed neither of them said anything to her so she just walked out of the room.

“Aw Taylor baby come her sweetie.” Ally said as she picked the little girl up. “What’s wrong sugar?”

“I miss mommy. I thought that Lauren was going to come home after the game with you guys.” Taylor’s eyes starting glistening over with her attempt to try and be a big girl.

Ally hugged the little girl tighter to her chest, “it’s okay sweetie you can cry. Don’t worry I think Lauren will be back any time now. Why don’t I get you some water and then I read you a story? Sound good?”

With tears freely running Taylor answered with a small, “yes please.”

So Ally got the girl some water and put her in bed telling her a story of how a princess fell in love with a giant and how they had to convince everyone that they really loved each other. How they overcame everything and ended up happily ever after.

Ally finished the story knowing that Taylor had fallen asleep half way through, but sometimes it is just nice to hear a happy ending instead of a cliff hanger all the time. When she finished she snuck out of the guest room and went back to Dinah’s listening to the quiet as both girls were so focused on the movie that nothing could make them move. Ally decided if you can’t beat them join them and started watching the movie.  
\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

”Thanks for the ice cream. I‘ll pay you back.” Camila said as the left the shop.

”Nope don‘t worry about it. My treat.” Lauren smiled.

“Do you need a ride or did you drive today?” Camila asked while they were walking outside and back to the school parking lot.

Lauren turned and smirked at Camila, “I have my bike. Let me know if you ever want to go for a test drive.” Lauren added a wink to get to Camila and it worked as Camila blushed at the statement.

Trying to change the subject Camila asked, “Where are you heading anyways?” 

Camila was looking Lauren up and down as she put on her helmet. Lauren was dressed in ripped jeans and a low cut white tank top with a hot pink bra underneath and her infamous dark blue and white leather jacket. When Camila finally made her way back to Lauren’s face the girl was smiling at her.

“Like what you see Cabello? By the way I’m not going anywhere that’s important enough to acknowledge.” Lauren got on her bike and started it up.

Camila through her hands up in defense at Lauren “alright, alright. I was just asking. I mean is it so hard to believe that someone actually cares, because Lauren I do care. Even if you don’t want to acknowledge that I do.”

“You can care all you want Cabello, that is cool with me. Just don’t act like a girlfriend when all we did was share a kiss. Trust me if you were my girlfriend you probably wouldn’t get anything out of me then either. See you at the game tomorrow Cabello.” With that Lauren was driving off to who knows where to do who knows what.  
\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

All Camila could think was how does Lauren do that? One minute she could be the nicest sweetest relaxed person and then next thing you know a switch is flipped and she’s back to biting your head off. So Camila tried to think of another way that she could get through to the girl to let Lauren know that not everyone was out to get her. Camila really needed to talk to someone about Lauren’s secret, but still Camila didn’t want to break the secret she knew. Camila was between a rock and a hard place knowing that she needed to get Lauren help but also still not knowing enough information to get her the help she needed. Camila was getting herself all worked over the fact that she wanted so badly to help the green eyed girl that she was slowly falling for. How could anyone do that to her? Camila told herself that she was going to do everything possible to make Lauren happy and destroy the person that was hurting her. Next thing Camila knew though she was parking in front of Dinah’s house.

Camila walked into the house like it was her own seeing as over the summer she had grown accustomed to being in the house all the time to wake the younger Polynesian girl up. As per usual she found all the girls in Dinah’s room watching a movie without her. “Really Beyonce again? Don’t you two ever get tired of it?”

“Hey Mila! No one could ever get over the essences that is the Queen B.” Dinah answered.

“Hey Mila, what took you so long I thought you were right behind us?” Normani chimed in.

Camila flopped down on Dinah’s bed and got comfortable. “Yeah sorry, I got caught up with someone.” Camila thought no one would catch the smile on her face.

“I knew it! You were with Lauren weren’t you?” Normani asked excitedly.

Dinah and Ally both looked at the girl just as intrigued at the answer as Normani was. “Why are you all assuming that it was Lauren it could have been anyone?”

“Oh come on Mila. You’ve got to be kidding me right now. Lauren and you have been absent from lunch a lot and so many of our girl nights. I mean really I don’t think Lauren has ever made one. However are you going to tell us that it is all just a coincidence. ” Ally said.

“Alright yeah I was with Lauren tonight, but the lunch thing no I’m not with her then I have had tutoring sessions. I have been helping some of the girls on the team not fail english this year. I’ve only found Lauren in the locker room a few times.” Camila answered the accusations. 

“Really you were with Lauren tonight? Did you two talk? Were you able to get through to her?” Dinah asked knowing that Camila had at least a small crush on her best friend.

“Yeah, no, well sort of. I mean okay don’t take this the wrong way but have you guys noticed that Lauren will talk about anything except when it is personal. Like the other day we got paired in English for a project and she was rambled out the whole project in a few minutes but as soon as I asked her how everything was going she changed the subject or just ignored the questions all together?” Camila said laying on her back and staring at the ceiling with hands behind her head.

“Well that my friend is what you just explained as a typical Lauren, she’s always been that way. Never talking about anything personal unless it is something she is proud of Chris or Taylor doing. Lauren is very protective of the people she loves. Don’t ask me how she affords to take care of Chris and Taylor let alone herself. Do you guys know we’ve been friends for over eight years and I have never once been to her house. I don’t think anyone has, all I do know is that her dad hasn’t worked since her mom died.” Dinah said.

“Yeah I’ve never been there either, and for as long as I’ve known Lauren she has always been that way. I just wish she could spend a little more time with the kids. Those two munchkins are always asking about her. I wish I knew why her dad couldn’t take care of them.” Ally added.

“Dawg exactly, like where does she go every night? Wait and see it will be like two or three in the morning before she gets here. It never fails. I just wish that she would talk to someone, at this point I don’t care who it is as long as she talks. I know something is bothering her. Something has been eating at her since her moms death. However Mila is right she loves to divert questions away from topics she doesn’t want to talk about.” Dinah said as she grabbed an extra pillow and got comfortable on the beanbag chair, feeling sad that Lauren wouldn’t come to her about it.

“Mila? Mila?” Ally was trying to get the girls attention when she looked over and found her asleep. “Well Mila lost the battle guys.”

By now all the girls were trying to fight off going to sleep, forgetting about the movie and pizza all together. Camila was the first to lose the battle and was soon off to the dream world were she was imagining a very different Lauren, one that was happy and carefree and just enjoyed being a teenager. 

“Well dang it now how are we suppose to find out who she likes?” Mani asked.

Ally and Dinah just laughed, “ Mani do you really not know that she likes Lauren?”

“Yeah really watch her the next time that she talks about Lauren. Camila’s eyes brighten up and she can’t stop the little smile that takes over. It is actually really cute to watch.” Ally said.

Mani and Dinah smiled at the thought of Camila finally getting over her fear of people knowing she was into girls. Now all the girls had to do was get Lauren to talk and quit having meaningless relationships with random girls. Which is easier said then done. With that said all the girls got comfortable where they were and soon were all fast asleep.  
\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Jauregui nice job tonight. That was one of our biggest busts yet. You are one of the best assets we have on the streets right now.” Jacks told Lauren as he slid into the booth across from her signaling the waitress for their usual.

“Thanks Jacks”, Lauren mumbled while trying to stretch without hurting her back too much.

Jacks noticed that Lauren was acting a little off the last couple of days. Normally after a bust he couldn’t control the girl. Lauren would literally be jumping at the chance to get back out there and get some more. Tonight though Lauren just looked drained and exhausted like she was carrying the world on her shoulders.

“Hey Jauregui, are you good?” Jacks asked looking at the menu, his untamed shaggy blonde hair falling in his face.

“Yeah Jacks I promise. Just had a rough game today. Also this new team merger has got me all confused. I mean my co-captain and I have been at each others throats and now she knows something that I have never told anyone before. It’s like she’s the only one that gets me, to this day I haven’t even told Dinah. You know that’s saying something. Then Cabello comes along and just...boom, crack, shattered barricade laying in a pile on the floor.” Lauren used crumbling hand motions at the end so Jacks knew that there was something serious going on with the girl but how in the hell was he suppose to find it out.

Jacks stretched out in the booth throwing his legs up on the seat and placing his hands behind his head smirking at Lauren. Lauren of course was having none of his antics tonight. So Lauren mimicked his exact position and entered a staring contest with Jacks bright blue eyes.

“How old is your brother?” 

“10.”

“How long have you played basketball?”

“over 8 years.”

“What’s your birth date?”

“June 27th”

“What color are Cabello’s eyes?”

“Like pools of melted chocolate, like swimming in a cup of steaming burn your mouth hot cocoa.” Lauren blushed.

“Are you going to win state?”

“Hell Yeah!” Lauren threw her hand up in a fist pump.

“Are you going to be a cop when you graduate?” Jacks was curious.

“Nope.” Lauren popped the p. 

“How long have you had a crush on Cabello?”

“About six years now.”

“Aha. There it is! So what is it about this girl that’s got you so captivated? Wait is this the girl?” Jacks lost the staring contest wanting to get to the bottom of what was bothering Lauren.

Lauren was surprised that she was willingly talking to Jacks about anything. Lauren had been holding so much in though that it just felt good to finally say some of these things out loud. Then again Jacks was actually listening and seemed interested in knowing these things about her. Jacks was everything right now that she wished her dad would be. Lauren took the distraction of their food coming to get her thoughts together.

“Yeah I guess she is the one that made me realize I wanted to be with girls. I have no idea what it is about her, I think it is mostly because she has seen and broken through just about everyone of my walls that I have put up. It’s like she had x-ray vision and could tell that I really needed a friend back then and even now. Camila just has this essence around her that makes me calm down, and get fired up all at the same time.” Lauren thought about what she said and just couldn’t help the smile that took her over.

“I’ve never seen you have problems with girls though. I mean you even stole four girls right out from underneath their boyfriends, if I remember correctly. What hold does this girl have on you? Is she single? Is she into girls? Tell me the reason why Thee Lauren Jauregui hasn’t pulled this girl yet.” 

Jacks wanted to desperately know who could make his little fire cracker undercover agent want to stop playing the field. Just the fact that this girl Cabello has Lauren all confused was all he really needed to know that Lauren was sprung over this girl. Now to just get Lauren to realize that it is okay to be happy.

“That’s just it Jacks she’s Thee Camila Cabello and nothing has ever amounted up to her and that was before I even knew her. Jacks this girl makes me want to spill my whole life story from the flutter of her eyelashes. Hell just from a small smile she sends this feeling into my stomach that I just can’t get rid of. I literally want to be around Camila all the time, like I am being pulled to her. Don’t tell a soul but when I am around her I just lose all my badass points. It’s like she makes me become mute. The only problem is that I like listening to her and love making her laugh.”

Jacks sat back in his previous relaxed position and just smiled at Lauren’s smile and blushing face.

“Jauregui, I hate to say it but I think you’ve caught the love bug.”

“Yeah tell me about it. How do I let her into my crazy life though? I mean there is no way that anyone is going to be with me after they find out everything that goes on behind closed doors. If you get what I mean. No one is going to want to be with an eighteen year old girl that basically has two kids because their dad is to lazy to get another job and actually even try to be a father.”

Lauren’s face went from the happiest in the world to the saddest. Jacks knew that the girl was still hiding something though maybe just maybe this Cabello girl could bring it out of her.

“Well if she’s anything like how you just talked about her then I don’t think she’s going to care either way. What I think is that for once in your life maybe, just maybe, you should do something that is going to make you happy.”

“Yeah maybe. I guess I have some thinking to do. I’m gonna go, enjoy your night Jacks. See you next week.”

“Bye Jauregui. Please let the girl in. Never know she may be the one that turns your world around.”  
\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lauren decided that she was going to go for a ride to help clear her head. Lauren ended up at the one spot that she knew she probably shouldn’t be at right now. Lauren ended up at the exact intersection where her mother had died in an accident. It was one place that Lauren always went when she needed to put her bad ass face on. Why she ended up here now she had no idea. Maybe it was because this time there was no need for her to be angry. This time all she needed to see was that it was just another street corner, there was no more blood on the ground, there was no more pieces of shattered windows or chunks of metal. The only thing that was still there for anyone to know that something had happened was the small cross that Lauren had put there. Lauren knew that she couldn’t keep up the masks that she wore all the time. Lauren knew it was time that she tried to let someone in, but how does she get over the fear. How does Lauren know that if she lets Camila see every side of her that she won’t go running for the hills. Lauren knew that it was now or never.

Lauren jumped back on her bike and took off for Dinah’s house knowing that she just needed to snuggle up in a nice safe warm bed and that she would feel better in the morning hopefully.

Lauren arrived at the Hansen house around two thirty in the morning, she knew that Dinah’s mom would be up most likely so she walked over to Dinah’s window and climbed in that way. Lauren loved that Dinah never locked the window and never kept anything in front of it for her to trip over. Lauren didn’t even think twice about it being a girl’s night and changed into a big t-shirt and some booty shorts and crawled into the bed. Lauren was too tired to notice that Dinah was not the one in the bed. Lauren didn’t care though and just spooned the smaller girl relaxing into the scent of lavender coming from the girl’s hair.  
\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“When did she even get here? Did you guys hear her come in?” Ally asked.

Normani and Dinah both shook their heads. “I bet you she came in through the window and didn’t remember that we were having a girl’s night.” Dinah said.

“Well I say we let them sleep and go get some breakfast, I’m starving.” Mani said as she grabbed her stomach when it rumbled.

Dinah and Ally laughed. “Alright let’s go get something. But first I’m taking a picture because this is just too cute not to.” Dinah said as she took Lauren’s phone and snapped a picture. Lauren was now the little spoon and had her hand covering Camila’s that was under her shirt on her hip. Camila’s other arm was under Lauren’s head and her fingers were interlaced with Lauren’s other hand. no one could see that their legs were mixed together under the sheets. Dinah just knew that she was going to have to show Lauren proof of the little spoon position that she had taken.

Camila was the one that woke up first when she was having trouble moving her arm because it was falling asleep. When she opened her eyes and realized just exactly why her arm was falling asleep all she could do was smile. Camila wasn’t sure when Lauren had got there and snuggled into her but Camila was definitely not going to complain. Camila tried to stay as still as possible but when she realized that her and Lauren where holding hands and all tangled together she couldn’t help herself and was wiggling around more than she thought she was.

“Lay still would ya some people like to sleep in on the weekend.” Lauren said with a raspy morning tone.

Camila smiled at Lauren trying to snuggle further into the sheets. “Lauren? Hey Lo?”

Camila tried to get Lauren to wake up a little bit and then realized that she just gave the girl a nickname. Oh shit Camila thought to herself I must be in deep.

“What is it Camila? I’m trying to stay sleeping right now because for once I actually slept through the night and you are really comfortable.” Lauren said trying her hardest to stay asleep ignoring the fact that Camila had called her Lo.

“Oh okay then that’s fine go back to sleep then. I just need one thing though. My arm is asleep and I really need it to stay attached.” Camila said

Lauren lifted up her head and slowly detached herself from Camila’s hand missing the warmth as she pulled it away. Camila had then shifted completely and was now laying on her back so Lauren rolled over and faced her. Then proceeded to try and make Camila roll over and face the other way but Camila wasn’t budging so Lauren just laid on her back but as soon as she did she immediately turned over again remembering the cuts that were still there and very much still sore. 

“Sorry Lauren I forgot. Are you okay?” Camila asked turning towards Lauren again.

“Yeah I’m fine I forgot too. I guess we might as well get up now. Those three will probably be up here sooner or later to wake us up. Speak of the devils.” Lauren said as the three girls walked back in followed by Chris and Taylor who were surprised to see Lauren and jumped on her as soon as they saw her.

“Hey munchkins! Miss me?” Lauren said as she hugged the two.

“Yeah DJ said that you were going to be here last night but we fell asleep waiting for you. Were was you?” Taylor asked.

I pain of guilt ran across Lauren as she hugged the two a little tighter. “Sorry guys I was busy trying to get us some money so we can go some place nicer than that house.”

Both kids looked at Lauren and smiled. “Okay with me then. But Lauren can we go and get some ice cream from the beach please please please?” Chris was begging Lauren with the biggest puppy dog eyes she had seen in a long time.

“Yeah that is actually a great idea! Mila you should take your sister too! It would be a great way for you two to work out some of your captaining issues. Maybe a fun day would show you guys that you’re both really not that bad.” Dinah chimed in giving Lauren a you better just go along with this look.

“It’s fine with me. I will just be happy to spend some time with these guys not worrying about anything for a little while.” Lauren said with a smile. “What do you say Cabello?”

Camila looked at Normani and knew that it was planned from the beginning. Camila knew she never should have said anything about liking Lauren. “Yeah it is cool with me. I will just have to run home and get my sister and all her stuff. Give me the address and I’ll meet you there in thirty.”

Chris and Taylor were jumping for joy that they got to go. “Alright go get ready duders. I’ll text it to you Cabello give me your phone number.” 

The two exchanged numbers and everyone got ready to go to the beach. “What are you guys not coming?” Lauren asked.

“Nope we already planned on going shopping so enjoy your day with the kiddos Lauren.” Dinah said smacking the girl on the back and leaving her to get ready.

Lauren wiped away the tear that escaped her hold and reminded herself that this just might be the right opportunity to tell Camila about her problems and see if the girl went running for the hills. Okay so maybe she wouldn’t tell the girl everything but maybe she could see if the girls mom was still willing to look at her back and fix it up for her. 

“Lauren are you ready. Come on we’ve been waiting for a year.” Chris started complaining to Lauren through the bedroom door.

Lauren threw on a tee-shirt and opened the door. “Yeah I’m ready now let’s go you two.”


	5. Chapter 5

“So how long do you think the three of them have been planning this?" Camila asked as the group of them walked to the ice cream shop.

"Knowing them. Probably the day you showed up at my school." Lauren laughed.

As Camila watched Lauren actually laughing and joke around enjoying herself, she wondered how she could get Lauren to be like this all the time. Camila didn't realize she was staring until Lauren grabbed her arm and stopped her.

"Camila! What is wrong with you? You almost face planted into the door." Lauren was trying really hard to not laugh in the girls face but she just couldn't hold it in any more.

Camila stopped dead in her tracks when Lauren actually used her name. Also the sight of this happy go lucky Lauren was literally melting Camila's heart. Camila knew she must have the dopiest grin in the world on her face but she just didn't care. If she had to make a fool of herself for the girl to laugh all the time then that is what she was prepared to do. Camila also noticed that Lauren had yet to remove her hand from around her arm. Camila felt a warmth radiating through her skin like Lauren was branding her. Why the hell was this girl having this much of an effect on her? How could one little thing make her want to just kiss the girl?

"Cabello! Seriously what is up with you? You look like your in a whole other world. You okay?" Lauren asked letting go of her and waving her hands in front of Camila's face.

"Oh yeah sure I'm fine, just thinking." Camila surprisingly said without stuttering. "Now come on let's get that ice cream."

Before Lauren could question her anymore Camila had stepped into the shop and was talking with the kids.

"Alright what do you two want? Lauren asked her siblings.

"I want chocolate chunk with sprinkles! Please Lauren!" Taylor said while jumping up and down. Lauren nodded her head and Taylor ran for a booth seat excitedly.

"Lauren can I have cookie dough in a waffle cone? Please, please, please." Chris asked just as excited as Taylor was before.

"Alright. Now go sit down I'll be right there." 

Lauren placed the order, getting nothing for herself because she was out of money. Lauren didn't mind though because she knew it would make the two of them really happy. Camila noticed that Lauren hadn't got anything and could tell the girls mood had shifted some. Camila wondered what exactly caused it.

"Hey Lo you want something?" Camila asked when she noticed Lauren hadn't got anything.

"No. I'm fine." Lauren took the kids theirs.

Camila ordered Sofi's and hers, then they both sat down across from the Jauregui's. 

"Here Lo. The guy accidentally gave me an extra one and I can't eat it all. So please take it." Camila said pushing the other one towards Lauren.

Lauren knew that Camila was lying through her teeth, as the guy behind the counter was one of those go by the rules completely types, Lauren didn't say anything though and just took the ice cream with a small smile. It was nice to know someone wanted to do something for her, even if it was just ice cream. Lauren though was trying to study Camila to see if she had an ulterior motive but all she got was a reddening Camila. Not really wanting to embarrass the girl too much more Lauren stopped staring and ate the ice cream.

After everyone was done Lauren asked, "So who's ready for the beach?"

All three of the kids jumped up and starting yelling "I am. I am." 

"Alright then let's go." Lauren gestured towards the door as they all clambered out of the booth and out into the beach.

"Loloz can we build a castle?" Taylor and Sofi asked.

"Of course you can!" Lauren said as Taylor and Sofi jumped for joy, took the buckets and shovels, and ran further away to start building. 

As Lauren sat watching her younger siblings stumble around and build the castle she relaxed and just smiled at everything in front of her. Lauren was enjoying the day but could also feel someone boring a hole in the side of her head. Lauren knew that those deep chocolate eyes were trying to get her attention, and it made Lauren smile even more. Finally the brown-eyed girl talked.

"You're really great with them. It must be hard."

"Yeah, I do my best. Dinah's mom is the real hero though, I couldn't do it without her."

"What about your parents?" Camila asked not knowing.

"We get along okay, don't need someone when their not there." Lauren blew off the question like always.

Camila knowing the girl didn't want to talk about it changed the subject or so she thought. "How does your back feel today?"

"It's been better. Not going to complain though because that will solve nothing."

"You ready for the tournament this weekend?" 

"Yep. Always am. You actually get your little menaces to learn the plays and want to be a team?" Lauren said with a small attitude.

"The day coach kicked you out for being pissed off. I told all the girls that we needed to stop the petty bullshit and just play as a team and anyone who didn't like it could feel free not to show up anymore." Camila said.

"Yeah that was a bad day. I'm glad that you got through to them too. I was wondering why a few of the girls quit showing up." 

"YO! CJ!!" a girl screamed from on the boardwalk causing Lauren to jerk her head around as Camila had a questioning look on her face at Lauren's reaction.

"Cabello. I have to deal with this. Please keep an eye on them. Please just keep them over here." Lauren pretty much begged.

"Lauren what's wrong? Who is that? Why'd they call you CJ?" Camila wanted to know.

"Camila I promise I will tell you everything when I'm done. Please just watch them for me." Lauren grabbed Camila by the shoulders and looked into her eyes trying to get the urgency across.

Camila sighed, "alright but I want an explanation when you're done."

"I promise." Lauren said pecking the girl on the lips and running off.

Now what the hell was that Camila thought and why the hell did Lauren respond to CJ? Could this have something to do with why Lauren was always missing? Maybe those girls were why Lauren was always being so secretive and broody. Camila noticed that Lauren went from laid back and relaxed to ridged and bitchy again. Even her eyes seemed to change from an inviting green to a darkening grey, in the blink of an eye. Camila looked back to where Lauren was and tried to figure out if she had seen the girl Lauren was talking to. No such luck.

"Camila what is Loloz doing with those girls? I thought she was going to play with us." Camila was broken out of her thoughts as Chris came to talk to her.

"Umm, not quite sure myself, but she said she will be right back. So why don't you go grab some water for your moot buddy." Camila effectively diverted Chris’s attention.

"So CJ are you going to hook me up tonight or what?" the pretty petite blonde with blue eyes asked.

"For sure you know I will as long as you got the money, beautiful." Lauren made sure to use her undercover persona and flirted with the girl. 

"Don't worry your pretty little head about it. Money is never a problem for me. How much do you need?"

"Depends on what your doing and how much you want. Give me a number sweet cheeks and we'll work something out. Maybe even give you the sexy girl discount." Lauren said stepping a little closer to the girl, and running her fingertips down the girls cheek.

As the girls cheeks turned a little red she said, "Well it's a rather large party. Over two hundred or more people will be there. So I say bring whatever you want to get rid of. I'm thinking I can at least pull five large. Then my minions can work the party."

Lauren tried to hide her surprise at the number if she took this to Jacks now she could walk away with some good money tonight.

"Sounds like it is going to be one hell of a party tonight. I wonder how hard it is to get an invite to something like that?" Lauren said as she reached over and brushed a hair out of the girls face.

The girl blushed again, Lauren thinking that it was too easy to keep getting a reaction like that. "I think that it's in the cards for sure tonight. Here's my number call me later and we can set up the rest of the details. You'll get paid when we get the stuff."

"Sure thing beautiful. I'll see you tonight." Lauren turned to walk away when the other girl grabbed her by the arm.

"Oh and just so you know your girlfriend looks pissed that you were flirting with me. Bring her tonight too. It will make it all the more fun, unless of course your scared." Blondie said with a smile and joined her friends and took off.

Shit! Shit! Shit! Was all Lauren could think. Now she had to tell Camila everything and Jacks was going to be pissed. Lauren waited a minute before she made her way back to the group, she needed a minute to get her thoughts together. Lauren was pissed because now she had to drag someone she liked into the not so nice business she was doing, then again she was excited about the fact that she could say Camila was her girlfriend. Even if it was not as she planned from what she knew about the girl Lauren was starting to believe in being happy again. All due to the little brown eyed cuban girl. 

Camila didn't know what exactly to think about what she just saw, then again something told her that she might not want to know. All Camila really knew right now was that she almost felt betrayed, even though she had absolutely no hold on Lauren. Still Camila couldn't help but feel jealous. Camila couldn't believe that Lauren was just so willing to flirt with the other girl right in front of her, well sort of, then again they hadn't discussed what they were. Or even it there was an anything to speak about. What if Lauren was just using this as another notch on her belt? 

Lauren looked lost in thought when she came back to sit next to Camila. Camila just let the girl sit and think, but for some reason couldn't take her eyes off the girl. After a good ten minutes Camila knew she would have to be the one to break the silence.

"Hey Lauren? Why did that girl call you CJ? What are you thinking about?"

Lauren didn't look to Camila but let out an audible sigh. 

"Can we not talk about it here? I can't exactly talk about it in the open like this. That would actually be a disaster." Lauren said looking around at all the people on the beach.

"Are you actually going to talk to me or is this just another distraction tactic of yours?" Camila sounded a little upset.

"I promise if just you and I go somewhere I'll tell you anything you want to know." Lauren said still not looking at the girl.

"Alright then let's take them to my house Taylor and Sofi look like their getting along and my mom would love to watch them."

"Are you sure she will watch them I mean Dinah's mom is more than willing?"

"Just trust me." The three words that Lauren has the hardest time with. "My mom loves little kids and especially ones that make her daughters smile. So hand over your phone so I can put my address in it."

Lauren finally had looked at the girl and just handed over her phone willing. "There must be something wrong with me." Lauren thought as she turned her attention back to her siblings.

"Why do you say that?" Camila asked throwing Lauren off a bit at the question.

"What?"

"You said there must be something wrong with me. What did you mean? What is wrong with you?" Camila asked giving Lauren back her phone.

Lauren laughed. "I thought I said that in my head. But yeah anyways I never trust anyone. They have to earn my respect first. For some reason with you though, I cave in an instant. Seriously I just handed you my phone like it was nothing. I never do that."

“Oh....well thanks for trusting me then.” Camila said not even sure if that was the right thing to say.

"So yeah I'm going to get the kids together." Lauren ran off to get them before Camila could say anything.

Maybe Camila did have a shot with Lauren, but somehow Camila knew that it was not going to be easy. Camila knew that she had probably only made it through one of Lauren's barriers and she was determined to get through the rest.

"Alright girls you both go with Camila. Taylor please be good like always." 

Taylor nodded her head at Lauren like they had a silent agreement. Camila wondered what that was about, but when she really thought about it Taylor must know something about what is going on.

"Chris your with me so you can go with the boys to football practice later."

They all picked everything up and were on their ways. Lauren later got to Camila's house by bike and told her to get on they needed to go somewhere. Lauren went to the one place that she felt most at home, the gymnasium. Seeing as it was Saturday afternoon no one was there so Lauren used her copied keys and made her way inside.

"So that is how you got in. How did you get keys?"

"Coach is always losing those things, he left them one night and I made copies. Pays to know people." Lauren smirked.

"Okay I'll take your word for it. Now care to tell me what all that was about on the beach today?" Camila passed the ball to Lauren.

Lauren lined up a shot and swooshed it. "Well it was almost exactly what it looked like. What do you think it was I’m curious?"   
Camila grabbed the ball and dribbled it a few times, "It look like someone you were scared of. When she first called you CJ the look on your face was like you had seen a ghost. Other than that I am not sure I stopped paying attention when you started flirting with her heavily." Camila passed Lauren the ball a little harder. 

Lauren caught the ball and smiled knowing Camila was at least a little jealous that was a good thing right. "Technically no I am not scared of her, what I am afraid of is that part of my life was never meant to mix with my real life here." Lauren shot again and swooshed it again. “I might have just screwed everything up.”

"What is mixing with what Lo? I mean technically I still don't know that much about you." Camila said as she dribbled the ball out and made her own shot.

"Well you are going to find out later tonight anyways. My undercover life was never meant to get anywhere close to the high school one. No one is ever suppose to get anywhere close to being able to figuring me out." Lauren grabbed the ball and dribbled out for a shot and made it. Camila grabbed it and passed it back to Lauren.

"Wait what are you undercover for? Who do you work for? What is it that you do? Does it have anything to do with who hurts you?" Camila rambled out all the questions that it through Lauren off as she shot and the ball blasted off the front of the rim across the gym.

"Okay woah. That was a lot of questions at once. Just breathe Camz." Lauren sat down on the three point line where she was and patted the floor next to her. Camila walked over and sat down across from her instead.

"Now one at a time ask me what you want to know?"

Camila took a deep breathe, "is it still anything I want to know like you promised at the beach?"

Lauren laughed, "of course that is the first question and yeah it is anything goes. To a point."

"Why did she call you CJ?"

"CJ is my undercover name that I only use with certain subjects to try and bust them. It is actually what you are going to have to call me tonight if we want to pull this off." Lauren answered fiddling with the ring on her thumb.

"Why exactly do I have to go tonight? Am I going to be in danger?" Camila looked a little worried.

"You will be in no more danger than if you were at a normal high school party. That is all this is. It just so happens that we will have the inside scoop on when the police will be there. Now with you being there I will have the perfect excuse of being upstairs when they bust in and get the dealers. You have to go tonight because blondie thinks that we're dating, and I think she believes it too. Blondie kinda threatened me if I didn't bring you, but really all you have to do is stay next to me and everything will be fine." Lauren took Camila's hand.

Camila looked at their hands, "you work for the police then?" Lauren nodded.

"Why?" Lauren was actually waiting for that question.

"I almost got thrown in juvie when I got busted at a party. The detective at the time Jacks wanted to know why all of a sudden I was in the middle trying to be the life of the party but yet when shit hit the fan I helped everyone else get away leaving myself to get in trouble. I had a simple answer, no one else needed to be hurt. I've never told him anything about why I said that."

"Why did you say that?" Camila stretched her legs out to one side and leaned back on her forearms.

Lauren mimicked the position, "Oh you're good Camz. I said it because of the other things going on in my life and to be honest it's the truth. If I am already being hurt why would I want anyone else to go through what I am going through. I might as well take the punishment instead of my friends that were there at the time."

"Will you tell me who is hurting you?" Camila spoke it softly.

"I don't know if I can I mean I have hid it for so long that I don't even know if I could say it while thinking about it." Camila gave Lauren a confused look when Lauren started smiling when an idea popped into her head.

"Have you ever played speed asks?" 

"No." Camila said curiously. 

"Okay so I don't think I am just going to out right tell anyone about that thing so what you have to do is think of a whole lot of questions. Ask me questions about basketball, my brother or sister, and then throw in the other one and because I am so wrapped up in playing the game I will just blurt it out and then you will know and I hopefully will be able to talk about it." Lauren said as she sat back up ready to play.

Camila sat up as well ready to play. "What's your favorite color?"

"Right now red."

"How old are you?"

""Seventeen."

"Are you ready for the tournament next weekend?"

"Hell yeah. Ready to beat them all."

"Do you like me?"

"Yeah. You're cute."

"What's your favorite princess?"

"Ariel. Oh and Mulan."

"Where are we going tonight?"

"To a party."

"What are we going to do there?"

"Bust the drug dealer we've been trying to catch for a long time so that he can stop hurting high schoolers like us."

"Who hits you?"

"The horrible person that I am suppose to call a dad."

 

Camila's jaw would have hit the floor if it wasn't attached. No way. It couldn't be right. Lauren did not just say that. How could a parent do that to their child. To someone like Lauren that was giving up stuff for her two siblings just so they were happy. Now Camila got it. Now she knew why Lauren said she had to prove to him that she wasn't hurt. Lauren's dad must have showed up at the game, maybe just for appearances. None the less now Camila wanted to love the girl even more, but would Lauren let her now that she knew her deep dark secret. However just like that Camila's shocked face went to anger. Camila now wanted to confront Lauren's dad and to find out what could ever possess him to hit the amazing beautiful girl in front of her. 

 

Lauren looked down at the floor after what she just said knowing that Camila had to be judging her. There was a reason that she never told anyone. There is no way that Camila still wanted to be friends with her, maybe Lauren should start trying to push her away before it got any messier. The one thing though that she never expected was to look up and see a very attractive, pissed off cuban, and damn if she didn’t look good in raging anger. Then she saw the very person she was so afraid of telling her secret to.

 

"Jacks?" Lauren said no longer being able to hold back the tears.


	6. Chapter 6

“Hey Jauregui? Everything okay? You’re not hurt are you?” Jacks asked when he noticed the girl crying.

Camila watched as Lauren’s walls built right back up. Camila watched as happy and vulnerable went to sassy and bitchy in an instant. Lauren stood up and wiped the tears away like nothing happened. Camila watched as everything she had just accomplished was wipe off, shrugged away.

“It’s all good Jacks. We’re good. So we kind of have a problem.” 

Camila looked between Lauren and Jacks and tried to understand their dynamic. Trying to figure out if Lauren actually trusted him.

“How are we going to make Camila part of the team? I don’t want her to be in danger. I don’t want anyone to figure out who she is. I need her to be safe.” Lauren told Jacks with care and concern lacing her features.

“I get that. I understand that is what we have to do. You know that I protect everyone that is under me. How did she get involved anyways? I thought you were keeping this stuff a secret? Do they know her real name?” Jacks answered back.

“You think that I did this on purpose? You really think that I would put someone that means something to me in danger? I just happened to get spotted on the beach, at least they didn’t see my brother and sister that happened to be there too. To those people I’m just their go to. What do you think would have happened if one of them yelled my real name or came up to me? I salvaged the situation the best I could. The girl called Camz out, there was nothing I could do about it.” Lauren threw her hand up in frustration and was now pacing back and forth.

Camila looked at Lauren confused, did Lauren really just say she cared about her? That was something new maybe Camila was finally breaking through Lauren’s barriers. 

“Okay, okay calm down.” Jacks walked to Lauren and rubbed her arms. “I will figure it out. Maybe you two can be upstairs at the time of the bust. I’ll see if I can be the one that searches the place this time. No promises but I will try.” Jacks reassured Lauren, Lauren backed away from the embrace though.

Camila was getting tired of being talked about like she wasn’t there. “WAIT! STOP!”

Jacks and Lauren both looked at Camila.

“Who says that I even want to be involved in this. I mean how dangerous is this? How much trouble will I get into if I’m caught? What is involved? What do I have to do? You can’t just expect me to jump in when I have absolutely no idea what is going on. So instead of you two talking like I’m not even here why don’t you try at least explaining everything to me.” Camila ranted out.

“Woah! Fiesty! That’s a new one for you Jauregui. I think she’ll be good for you.” Jacks said with a small chuckle taking a few steps back from Lauren.

Lauren looked at Camila and then back to the floor finding interest in how it was so shinny. Jacks laughed and smiled at Camila as Lauren started turning red.

“Okay since Lauren is turning into a tomato I’ll fill you in.” Jacks said as Lauren smacked his arm.

“The first thing that my people are doing is finding you an identity. We don’t want to use your real name for anything so tonight take nothing that has your real name and address on it with you. Pretty much just take whatever we give you. Second thing is I’m not going to lie. What we are doing tonight is going to be dangerous. The people we are dealing with are going to know if we give them fakes. Therefore most of the drugs will be real. If you are caught with any of them we have to process you like you are one of them. Third is that the girl we are giving the drugs to is basically going to hook us up with one of the other dealers in the area. They know CJ is getting fed up with working for penny’s and wants out of her current situation.” Jacks stopped for a minute to let everything process seeing Camila looking a little flustered.

Lauren noticed Camila and took her hand in hers and gave it a squeeze. Camila looked at her hand and then gave Lauren a small smile. 

“Listen I know that it’s a lot to take in and that it all sounds really bad. I do this every few months this one just so happened to land in our laps we weren’t expecting anything for a long time. I’m sorry that you were with me at the beach today. I’m sorry that you are even thinking about doing this with me. Simply put Camz you either have to trust me to get you out of there or walk away from everything right now and I will think of something like I always do.” 

Lauren moved a piece of hair out of Camila’s face as she watched her think about everything that was just said to her.

“So here’s the thing we have till ten o’clock tonight to figure this all out. I don’t need you to make a decision right off the bat here. But I do need you to really think about it. All I am doing is trying to get these drug dealers off the streets and people behind bars where they belong. I do however promise you that I will keep you safe and nothing will happen to you.” 

Camila saw something run through Lauren’s eyes but couldn’t quite decipher what exactly it was. Camz squeezed Lauren’s hand and knew that she had already made up her mind. Some how she knew that she couldn’t let Lauren down she wanted to make sure Lauren knew she would always be there for her. 

“I will do it. If you promise to not go anywhere with out me tonight.” Lauren smiled wide and nodded her head.

“I promise. You have no idea how much easier this will be not having to explain why you as my girlfriend aren’t there. Yeah they made that assumption not me.” Lauren said when Camila’s eyes got wide at her being called Lauren’s girlfriend.

“Alright then. Now that we know Camila is in we need to go down to the station and get everything ready. I’ll make sure that everything is perfect. What’s the house address so I can plan all the escape routes for you?” Jacks asked.

“Um here she put everything in my phone.” Lauren handed him the work phone. “Oh yeah I recorded the conversation too.”

“Lauren you are amazing and would make a great cop one day. I really wish you would consider it. However the address she gave you is a warehouse. So it looks like you two are going to a rave which means it might be a little harder for me to get you guys out without looking suspicious. I will see what I can do though.” Jacks sent a text to his phone with the address.

“Okay you two have a few hours before I really need you. So see you then. Jauregui no heels this time let’s go with sneakers and make sure you two look the part okay?”

“Got it. See you later Jacks.” Lauren answered as Jacks made his way out of the gym.

Lauren turned back to Camila. “So care to tell me what is really going through your head right now? I mean you sounded kind of weary in the beginning and now you are down for it. Talk to me.”

The two girls stood their staring in each’s others eyes trying to find what they were looking for. Lauren wondered if Camila was being sincere in everything she had been doing for her lately. Was Camila really just wanting to protect her? Would Camila actually stick around and not leave her side when she needed her the most? Could she really let Camila go with her tonight and risk her? Lauren didn’t think she could let someone who had had such a big impact on her life do this tonight. Lauren made up her mind she had to talk Camila out of it.

“I don’t know. Like you have said to me for some reason I just trust you. I don’t know what it is but I just feel like you won’t let me fall.” Camila couldn’t take her eyes off of Lauren.

“Camila you don’t have to do this tonight.” Camila looked confused.

“I know that I just said that it would be easier so I wouldn’t have to explain. Truth is that is me taking the easy way out like usual. So I don’t think you should go tonight. It’s dangerous, and risky. I don’t want you to get hurt.” Lauren said squeezing Camila’s hand.

Camila could see Lauren was telling the truth about it being serious. Camila knew that too many people had let Lauren down though and she wasn’t about to be added to that list. Camila knew she needed to do this for Lauren.

“Lauren, if it was that dangerous I have a feeling Jacks wouldn’t be letting you do it either. So even though I appreciate the concern for my safety. Yeah I am still going tonight because I want to make sure that you’re okay too. Oh and I trust you to keep me safe and not leave me behind. There is just something about you that makes me want to stay by your side and protect you. I don’t want you to do this alone either. Besides I know that you will catch me if I fall.” Camila said with a small smile.

Lauren let go of Camila’s hand and walked to get her ball she got it and came back. “You shouldn’t put all your faith in me Camz. I am always screwing things up and the last person I want to do that to is you.”

Before Lauren could shoot the ball Camila took a step in front of her and lowered the ball. “You don’t have to worry that much about me. I do know how to take care of myself. However thank you for wanting to protect me. It’s actually really sweet.”

Camila let go of the ball and backed up but never took her eyes off Lauren. “Now how is your back feeling?”

When Lauren hesitated Camila knew Lauren hadn’t been taking care of it. “Let me see please?”

“Uh..no. It’s alright just a little sore.” Lauren said shooting the ball.

“Lauren please let me look at it. I promise not to do anything.” Camila turned on the puppy dog eyes and pouted her lip.

Lauren was screwed and she knew it. Camz had just melted her heart. Lauren knew she was in trouble if she ever let Camz know that face worked on her. How the hell could just three months of getting to know the girl make Lauren feel like she couldn’t go a day without her?

“I will let you look at it if you promise not to freak out or get mad.” Lauren said getting the ball again.

Camila smiled a little knowing that she had definitely gotten to Lauren. “What would I have to freak out about Lauren? I have seen them before.” Camila said now worried about what was wrong with Lauren.

“Just please don’t freak out.” Lauren took her shirt off as she walked over to Camz.

“Why do you have it wrapped Lo? Does it hurt that bad? Did he hit you again since last time?” Camz who was now worried met Lauren half way and tried to examine the girl.

“No Camz he didn’t exactly hit me. It’s wrapped because...it kind of won’t stop bleeding and I don’t know why. With the pressure on it though it numbs it enough that I don’t think about it.” Lauren answered as she took the bandage off.

When Lauren was done and Camila saw her back she freaked out.

“Lauren Oh My God! You have to let someone look at these. Please you have an infection. I can’t do anything about it. You have to let me take you somewhere. Please Lauren. Please let my mom look at it.” 

Camila was in front of Lauren know pleading with her words and eyes that Lauren would go to a doctor. Camila had grabbed one of Lauren’s hands pulling her into a hug, carefully not to hit her back. 

“Please Lo. I can’t stand that you are in pain. It hurts me to see that you won’t let anyone help you. I promise you that my mom won’t ask any questions if you let her take care of it.” Lauren could hear the concern in Camz voice. Something that she wasn’t use to hearing.

“No I can’t. Adults always ask question. I know that she will even if you ask her not too.” 

“No really if I ask my mom to not say a word she won’t. My mom understands that some people don’t want to talk about it. Please Lo. Please.” Camila pleaded with everything she had even pulling out her signature pout and puppy dog eyes.

Lauren wasn’t sure if Camila could get any cuter. As she battled with herself on whether or not she could trust her or not. Could Camila’s mom really not ask any questions even though she would see the horrible scars that were left behind from years of abuse. There was no way that someone could see all that and not ask the questions. Even Camila asked the questions...well okay more or less waited Lauren out on the answers. Lauren searched Camila’s eyes for any sign of faking it, but found nothing but worry and concern, and something else she couldn’t place.

“You are cute when you’re begging.” Camila blushed.

“If you stop with that face right now then I will go and let your mom look at my back.” Camila lit up like a christmas tree.

“However if she asks one question about how I got them or any of the other scars then I am out of there. Got it?”

Camila could feel and see the seriousness on Lauren’s face. “Yeah I got it and I will tell her. Now come on.”

Camila grabbed Lauren’s hand and dragged her outside so they could go. The trip to Camila’s house was short and Camila hoped off the bike excitedly as Lauren was starting to rethink everything. Camila noticed.

“Hey. It’s okay? You really have nothing to worry about Lo. My mom works with kids and knows not to ask questions and to let them want to tell her. I know this may be hard for you but trust me.” 

Camila grabbed Lauren’s hand and walk with her to the front door. Camila opened the door and led Lo inside never once letting go of her hand. 

“Mom, I’m home.” Camila yelled. As soon as she did two little heads popped out from around a corner and Sofi went in for a bear hug making Camila let go of Lauren’s hand. 

“KAKI!! Your home!” Sofi screamed excitedly.

“LOLO!! Your here too!!” Taylor yelled when she noticed her standing there.

“Yeah hey munchkin. Were you good today?” Lauren asked again with a little head nod. All Camila could think was that it had to have something to do with her dad.

“Yeah Lolo I promise. We played fairies, and we ran around outside, and we got to play with the dogs and it was so much fun and me and Sofi are the bests of friends and I need to come over here more often and play and have fun and yeah I really like it here and Sofi’s mom is weally nice and she fed us lunch and we got to have juice and chips and samwikes and I’m not ready to leave yet I want to spend the night. Pwease pwease pwease Lolo say yesss.”

Lauren almost didn’t catch all of Taylor’s ramblings but half way through she felt the smile start on her face as she held the girl and listened to how happy she was for once with no worries in the world. Lauren was happy that Taylor got that for a day. Happy that Taylor got away from all the drama that was involved in their lives. Happy that she didn’t think about it that day.

“Hey mom would you be okay with Taylor and Lauren staying over tonight?” Camila shouted as she smiled at the scene that unfolded in front of her.

“If I get to meet this Lauren first that would probably help. So why don’t you introduce me.” Camila’s mom yelled from somewhere in the house.

“Well time to meet the mamacita! Are you okay with this still?” Camila asked taking Lauren’s hand again as the two little ones ran off to play again.

“Well I kind of have to be now that you told your mom I am staying over. Well that is unless you want me to be your invisible friend.” Lauren laughed.

“I like it when you smile.” It was one thing that Camila wanted to make Lauren do everyday. All Camila wanted was to see her happy and be a teenager. Someone that wanted to enjoy life. Not someone that need to survive day to day to make her life only mediocre. Camila loved it when she smiled it made Camila feel things churn around down in her stomach and she was slowly starting to love that feeling. 

Lauren stopped laughing and looked at Camila still smiling.

“Huh?” Lauren asked with an even bigger smile on her face.

“No I did not just say that out loud.” Camila said as she put her free hand over her mouth.

“Oh yeah you did. Don’t worry I really like it when you smile too.” Lauren kept smiling as she followed her through the house.

“Mama. This is Lauren. Lauren this is my mom.” Camila introduced the two of them.

“I would shake your hand but I am in the middle of cooking dinner. It is nice to meet you though. How is it that you know Mila here? I mean I thought I knew all of her friends. Oh and don’t you dare call me Mrs. Cabello. Call me Sinu.” Sinu asked Lauren.

“Well I know Camz because she came to my school and is co-captaining the team with me. I do have to say that she is an amazing player and a real asset to the team.” Lauren said sincerely.

“Wait are you the Jauregui girl that Mila here was always getting in fights with?” Sinu asked with her hands on her hips.

“Mama we were not getting into fights. It was all just a fierce rivalry that we got caught up in.” Lauren could tell it was something Camila didn’t want to talk about it she would have to remember to ask Camila later.

“Alright I get it. It’s nice to meet you anyways Lauren. I am guessing that Taylor is your little sister?”

“Nice to meet you too and yes.”

“Lolo? Lolo?” Everyone looked at Taylor when she ran into the room.

“Hey I’m here what’s up?” 

“Come look at the fort we built. Please Lolo.” Taylor grabbed Lauren’s hand not waiting for a reply and dragging the girl out of the kitchen and upstairs to Sofi’s room.

 

“Okay while she is out of the room. Mama Lauren got some...cuts...scrapes on her back and I think they are infected. Is there anyway that you can take a look at them.”

“How did she get them?” 

“Well that right there mom is what you have to promise not to do. I need you to not ask any questions. I just got her to trust me enough to let some one else take a look at them so please mom can you help her without asking anything? Like you do for the kids you treat.” Camila was all but begging her mom.

Sinu could see the worry on Camila’s face and knew that she need to help Lauren. “Alright let me finish this and throw it in the oven and then I will take a look at her. Okay?”

“Okay. Thank you mama. You are the best. Remember no questions.”

“Alright baby I promise.” Sinu crossed her heart and kissed her hand raising it.

Then it dawned on Sinu, just as Camila was about to leave the room. “Wait! Mila is this the girl you tole Sofi about the other night? I think I get the rivalry now.” Sinu smiled leaning against the counter.

Camila blushed as she just nodded and ran out of the kitchen before her mom had any more questions for her, hearing her mom chuckle as she went.

Camila went up to Sofi’s room knowing the girls were showing her their fort. Camila smiled when she walked in the room and all three of them were sitting in the fort and Lauren was telling them a story about princesses and fairies and not always having to go the traditional way. Of course Sofi and Taylor were saying no a princess had to be with a prince, but Lauren of course rebutted with not everything had to be as ordinary and unoriginal and that they could feel free to marry a frog if they so wanted to. Which in turn made all of them laugh including Camila. 

“Hey Sofi, Taylor can I steal Lo for a little while?” Camila asked

“Yeah we were done with her anyways.” Taylor said laughing.

“Yeah well I love you too munchkin.” Lauren grabbed Taylor and started tickling her.

“I...swowee....Lolo...I...love...you.” Taylor managed to say as Lauren stopped tickling her.

“Alright sweetie be good and I’ll see you later okay?”

“Okay bye Lolo.” Taylor said

 

Camila took Lauren’s hand and lead them to her bedroom. Lauren went and sat on Camila’s bed taking in her surroundings. The walls were littered with pictures of her family just randomly placed along the walls. A bookcase was filled to the brim with books and knick knacks. There was an acoustic guitar in the corner that Lauren seemed to linger on. Camila noticed.

“Do you know how to play?” Camila wondered aloud.

“No. I always wanted to though, I was suppose to learn but I ran out of time to learn from her.” Lauren said confusing Camila.

“How could you run out of time Lo? I mean if you really want I will teach you.” Camila went to get the guitar.

“No.” Lauren stopped Camila. “What I meant was that I wanted to learn from my mom. I remember her playing to Chris and Taylor when they were younger to put them to sleep. The way she played was...captivating. I remember sitting for hours on end just watching her play and asking her to play another one for me when she stopped. I was so happy then.” Lauren whispered the last part.

Camila watched the distant look take over Lauren as she shared this memory with her. Camila watched as Lauren smiled remembering her mom. Camila only wished that Lauren could have a father that actually loved her and not one that blamed her. Camila wondered how that could have happened anyways. How could someone blame their own child for an accident? Camila wanted to make the beautiful green eyed girl in front of her...happy...safe...feel loved. Could Camila be head over heels for Lauren in such a small amount of time? Sure they had known each other since they were eight playing against each other but did they really know enough about each other to take that step? Camila didn’t even know if Lauren wanted a girlfriend or even what she wanted to do after she graduated.

“Lo? You okay?” Camila said.

“Yeah I’m fine. I’ll be alright. I just miss her...a...lot.” Lauren said trying to hold back the tears.

Camila never hesitated and wrapped Lauren up in a hug. Lauren nuzzled her face in the crock of Camila’s neck as she couldn’t hold back the tears anymore. Lauren never let anyone know anything about her mom. Everything was a well kept secret. Camila was the only one that had ever broken through it. Lauren wasn’t sure if that was a good or bad thing. All she knew though was that she felt safe with Camila. Whether they were on the court or Camila was picking her up off the weight room floor. Lauren was slowly starting to realize that she had feelings for the other point guard and had no clue what to do with that information. Lauren knew that it would probably bring nothing but heartbreak to anyone that she let into her life. Yet again here was Camila slowly but surely learning everything about her. Slowly but surely Camila was becoming the person she wanted to tell all her secrets to.

Camila just kept rubbing Lauren’s sides and whispering sweet nothings. Camila let Lauren get all the sobbing out she was sure that her mom had peeked through the door but slowly closed it again when she knew no one was hurt. As Lauren started to slow down her breathing she pulled back from Camila.

“I can’t let you get attached to me. Nothing good can come out of you wanting to be my friend or anything else for that matter. Camz you can’t...shouldn’t want anything to do with me. I am bad news all the way around.” Lauren tried.

“Lauren you can’t tell me what to do on the court what makes you think I am going to listen to you off of it?” Camila asked.

“I’m just letting you know. I’m giving you the chance to run while you can. Camz I don’t want to hold you back or bring you down with me in anyway.” Lauren said fiddling with her hands in her lap.

Camila was quick to read Lauren and sat right next to her this time. “Lauren I am telling you I’m not going anywhere. It is so beyond late. I have been attached since I was ten and you told me I had pretty chocolate eyes.”

Lauren’s head snapped up. “You remembered that?”

“Yeah. You were the girl that made me realize even then.”

“Holy shit.” Lauren said looking back down. “Are you sure that it was me?”

“Uh...well yeah I mean look at you. Everyone should turn a little gay when they see you. Even when we were ten I knew there was something about you. Something that I wanted to see more of. Why do you think I was at every basketball camp or scrimmage or pick up game? I always wanted to figure you out see what made those bright green eyes dull over time. Watching that happen actually broke me in more ways than one. I could see the pain in your eyes yet you had the biggest smile on your face. I didn’t know what I was looking at back then. As I got older I just knew that something had made you turn from the sweet innocent girl I met in our first camp together that shared her juice and sandwich with me when the bigger girls took it to the pent up hulk version of that girl.”

Lauren was smiling but her head shot up when Camila told the camp story. “Wait did you go by a different name then?”

“Yeah I did.”

“You...you...you’re KC?” Lauren asked.

Camila panicked no one had called her that since she had changed schools. Camila didn’t want her past following her around. “Please Lauren. Don’t hate me. I was in a different school some things happened and I had to change my name. I mean you are the only one that had ever really called me KC but then the whole Cabello thing happened so I just put it out of my mind. I stopped using KC after I got bullied so much at my middle school. That is why we ended up going to different high schools. Well until now. The truth is that all the old bullies know me as Camila now. No one has put two and two together yet. Please Lauren. I know I should have told you. You were my first kiss.”

Lauren saw the panic race across Camz’s face. Lauren had never lost the girl that made her feel safe. Some how the only person that had ever really cared about the girl was still there. Camila was Karla Cabello a.k.a. KC. Why had it never come together? Why did she never catch onto that? How could someone change so drastically that she didn’t realize they where the same person anymore? Lauren should have known through those eyes, some way though she over looked them every time they played each other. Maybe it was the fact of being arch rivals that Lauren never looked at the girl twice. Now Lauren had to deal with the fact that her confidant was again sitting right in front of her and yet again she had trusted the girl. Lauren wanted to be mad at the fact that Camila had changed schools and never told her anything, but nothing could have made her as strong as she is now as to when Camila had disappeared from her life. 

“You’re....you’re here. You didn’t leave. You were mine too.” Lauren said not believing that KC the girl she was head over heels for was right there in front of her. It made everything that Lauren was feeling click into place, so to speak. Lauren understood why she felt so comfortable around Camila now.

“What?” Camila looked back to Lauren with shinny eyes.

“No, nope don’t do that. Do. Not. Cry.” Lauren pulled Camila in for a hug.

“Nothing had ever made sense till that day that you stole half my sandwich. I was going through a lot wanting to know what was gong on with my...my...him.” Camila tightened her grip in the hug. “You were there though. The sweet, smart, beautiful princess that wore bows to keep the hair out of her bright mahogany eyes. You were always there letting me know that I did have someone on my side. I needed that and I still do. That is why I made you meet me by the bonfire after dark and kissed you. You were everything to me.”

Lauren couldn’t help it as a few tears trailed down her face. Camila wiped the tears away with her thumbs and left her hands there slowly rubbing Lauren’s cheek soothing Lauren. The girls sat looking at each other for what seemed like hours neither wanting to break the moment.

Lauren though was the first to lean in just slightly. Camila had the biggest smile on her face when that happened and crashed her lips into Lauren’s. The two broke apart in a flash when they heard a knock at the door.

“Mila. Sweetie suppers all done so whenever Lauren is ready I will take a look.” Sinu said as she peaked inside the room.

“Okay momma thanks.” Camila said as Sinu closed the door again.

Lauren in the mean time stood up and was pacing back and forth. Camila walked over and took her hand. Lauren felt herself relax at her touch. 

“Hey it’s going to be okay. My mom promised not to say anything. So she won’t.” Camila said.

“Can you do me a favor Camz?” 

“Anything.”

“Will you take Tay out back or something? Just keep her distracted so that she can’t walk in on this.” Lauren asked with sad eyes.

“Sure I will take the girls down to the park that is two blocks away for a little while. I’ll keep them there until you text me.” Camz said.

“Thank you.” Lauren said relaxing just a little bit more but she could still feel her stomach turning. The last thing Lauren needed was someone piecing everything together.

“Hey trust me Lo, she won’t talk about anything unless you bring it up.” Camila said squeezing her hand.

“Okay.” Lauren let out a sigh of relief. Not completely relaxed but trying to get there. 

Camila noticed Lauren had tensed back up, so she grabbed Lauren’s other hand making the girl face her. Camila place Lauren’s hands on her hips and then slowly moved her hands up Lauren’s arms to the back of her neck. Camila leaned up a little ways and connected their lips sweetly. Camila pulled away and looked into Lauren’s eyes.

“I will be a phone call away. Just go outside and go down two blocks to the left that is where I will be. Now just relax and let my mom fix you up okay.”

“Okay. Only if you will do something for me though.” Lauren smirked.

“What?” 

“Go out with me tomorrow night.” Lauren blushed.

“Umm...yes. For sure yes.” Camila said as she lit up like a christmas tree.

Lauren couldn’t wipe the smile off her face either until Camila lead them out of the room and into her guest bedroom where her mom had everything set up.

“Alright. I will be right down the street. Everything will be fine. Just take off your shirt and bra and lay down on the bed.” Lauren raised an eyebrow at the girl and smirked.

“Not like that you perv. Now just do it.” Camila said slapping Lauren’s arm and closing the door behind her.

Lauren got undressed and laid on the bed waiting for Sinu to come in a check her out. 

Lauren heard a knock on the door. “Come in.” Lauren said.

“Okay so let’s do.....this then shall we.” Sinu said as she gasped seeing Lauren’s back.

“Just to let you know this might hurt a little Lauren.” Lauren could tell Sinu was holding back. Lauren knew that she wanted to ask. True to her word though she didn’t.

“So Lauren,” Great here it comes Lauren thought. “How long have you played basketball?”

“Um for roughly eight years now. I love it.” Lauren tried to hold back the tears as Sinu started working on her back.

“I know that it hurts you don’t have to try and pretend it doesn’t. I won’t tell anyone that you shed a few tears.” Sinu said as she laid on hand on Lauren’s shoulder for a second.

Lauren didn’t say anything and eventually gave up and let the tears fall. Lauren tried to focus on something else while Sinu cleaned her up but all she could think about was how much this was hurting her. It definitely most have been worse than what she thought. Lauren grabbed her phone and texted Camila and Dinah.

To Cabello : How is Taylor? Is she being good? 

To Dinah Jane : How is Chris?

From Dinah Jane : He is great they are all in the backyard getting ready right now. See you tonight?

To Dinah Jane : I actually got called in for work. Tay is staying at Camila’s so can you tell Chris good luck for me? I owe you big time. I’ll give you some of my next allowance.

From Cabello : Taylor is great playing princesses with Sofia as we speak. :)

From Dinah Jane : Yeah it’s no problem Lauren and no you don’t owe me anything so stop with that already you know I hate it when you try to do that.

To Dinah Jane : Thanks and yeah I know :)

To Cabello : Thanks again for doing this.

From Cabello : No problem Lo.

Sinu was glad that something was distracting Lauren from what she was doing. Lauren wasn’t going to like it but Sinu needed to pull some slivers of glass out and wasn’t exactly sure how deep they were. Sinu just knew that it was really going to hurt with some of the infection that was already there. Sinu grabbed a hold of a piece and pulled it out. Lauren dropped her phone and slammed her face into the bed to stifle a small scream of pain.

“I’m so sorry Lauren. I didn’t think that it would hurt that much. I am so sorry. But there are more in there and I need to get them out. Just tell me when you’re ready.” Sinu said taking a step back from Lauren and noticing that the glass was from a beer bottle. Being as it was dark brown in color and still had part of a label on it.

Lauren laid back down and told Sinu that she was ready. Sinu decided to try and distract the girl.

“Have you always been captain?” 

“Huh?” Lauren asked.

“Just trying to give you something else to think about.”

“Oh...well um yeah I guess for the most part I have been captain.”

“Is Taylor your only sibling?”

“I have two others an older sister that I haven’t been in contact with for a while and a little brother Chris he is a year older than Tay.” Lauren explained with a grunt at the end when Sinu pulled another big piece out.

“Sorry sweetie. I’m almost done though.”

“It’s okay I’m used to the pain.” Lauren shrugged.

Sinu wasn’t sure how to respond to that statement. How could an eighteen year old girl just nonchalantly say that. Lauren pretty much said it like it was an everyday occurrence that was having no effect on her what so ever.

“What is your older sisters name? Do you know where she is?”

“Um...her name it Sierra. Sierra should still be at Penn State, she got a full ride.” Lauren said proudly with a sad undertone.

“Wow that is amazing. Good for her. Why don’t you two talk?” Sinu asked.

“Sierra used to call all the time. I guessshe got busy. She graduates this year. I’m really proud of her.” Lauren said.

“Alright Lauren I have got to put some medicine on it now and I’m not gonna lie it’s going to burn for a little bit, okay?” Sinu said.

“Okay that is fine.” Lauren said.

“Go ahead and tell Camila to come back. Dinner should be ready when they get back.”

“Okay.”

To Cabello : Hey you can come back now ;)

From Cabello : Okay we are on the way

“All done sweetie. Can I ask you to come by the house everyday so I can change the bandages and make sure it’s healing?”

“Um...yeah I think that I can handle that. Thank you again Mrs.Ca...Sinu.” Lauren said. 

“No problem Lauren. Anytime. Now get dressed and you and Taylor are staying for dinner.” Sinu said not leaving time for discussion as she left the room.

Sinu walked down the stairs thinking that there was definitely something Lauren was hiding. The amount of fear in her eyes when she pulled that first piece of glass out was all she needed to know that Lauren was being abused. There was no doubt about it, but by who? 

“Camila. Can we talk in the kitchen please?” Sinu said when she spotted her daughter walking through the front door.

“Sure. What’s up mami?” Camila asked.

“What do you know about Lauren?” Camila looked a little confused. “I mean like what do you really know about her? Do you know what her home life is like? Or who is hurting her?” Sinu watched as Camila’s mouth almost hit the floor before she recovered.

“Mami. You don’t have to worry okay. Lauren is amazing and she has a troubled past not going to lie to you. Lauren though has stepped up and done what she needs to do to take care of her problems. Trust me mami when Lauren wants you to know she will tell you. Until then please don’t push it. It took me a long time to get through to her. Mami I really really like Lo. I know what I’m getting my self into.” Camila said then gave her mom a hug.

Lauren heard everything from the bottom of the stairs. Now she knew that trusting Camila was the right move. Maybe just maybe things would turn for the better now. However Sinu was on the right track and that meant only a small amount of time before two and two were put together.

After dinner Lauren tucked Taylor and Sofia in then went to find the older Cabello. 

"So are you sure you want to do this tonight?" Lauren asked.

"Yeah. I am." Camila said walking out of her closet ready for a rave.

Lauren was stunned as Camila came out in tight ripped white jean shorts and a bright pink crop top. Nothing could have prepared Lauren for this. This was definitely going to be a trying night. Lauren knew that she was going to be torn on wanting to get the bust and wanting to be all eyes on Camz. 

"Let's go party Lo!" Camila said as she grabbed a jacket and left the bedroom and Lauren with her jaw dropped.


	7. Chapter 7

“Well this is not at all how I thought the night would end.” Camila huffed out in between laughs.

Everyone kept laughing at the two girls in front of them. Camila caught Lauren’s eyes as the later blushed deeper. Camila smiled knowing that everything just might be alright for the two of them. Lauren busted one of the dirtiest cops in the precinct and was now a shoe in if she wanted to continue down a career as a police officer. Lauren felt truly happy for once in her life and she somehow knew it was all because of the brown eyed gorgeous girl sitting next to her right now.

 

Earlier that night....

Lauren drove to her house as she forgot to bring the clothes she needed for tonight. Lauren was relieved when she noticed no one was home. Camila felt the tense girl relax as they pulled in the driveway. Lauren grabbed Camila’s hand and led them into her bedroom. Camila stood in the doorway with wandering eyes. What is it they say, someone’s bedroom gives you a brief look into someone’s heart, mind and soul. Camila just stood there shocked never once did she expect this. 

Lauren’s room was littered with books every where. No matter where Camila looked there was another pile of books. Some so old she was afraid if she looked at them too long they would fall apart and others so new they were still smooth. The other thing that caught Camila’s eye and dragged the girl into the room was the drawings hanging on the walls with just the right lighting from the window. 

There were two of a beach setting that Camila knew all too well as she went there all the time. Camila often wondered how she had never seen Lauren there before. Another one was a bunch of kids playing football but part of the view was obstructed with the backs of peoples heads and hands raised in the air. Looking at the drawing gave you a feeling of actually being in the bleachers watching the game. Camila smiled brightly as she looked at the picture of butterflies and fairies with princesses and a castle in the background. It was colored with bright pinks and purples and screamed Taylor.

The one that ultimately had drawn Camila into the room was of a single girl surrounded by people on a day where it had just rained and the sun started shining again. Everything was colored except for the puddle that showed the girls reflection. Instead of the happy cheerful smile she was showing to everyone else the puddle showed a girl screaming like she was stuck and needed to get out. Camila knowing Lauren’s secret felt the tears start to form in her eyes and tried her hardest to keep them from falling.

“Did you do all of these?” Camila already knew by the LJ in every drawing but asked anyways. 

“Yeah, just something I do to pass the nights away.” Lauren shrugged walking out of the bathroom and packing a bag for the night.

Camila turned around wanting to know what Lauren meant by that but lost her train of thought as she took a look at Lauren.

“Ummm...”

Lauren was wearing black ripped skinny jeans, and a band t-shirt that had been slashed through the front showing off every inch of Lauren’s abs. Along with a perfectly placed slash to show off just the right amount of cleavage. Along with red lipstick and smokey eyes. Camila was having a hard time figuring out which she wanted to focus on. 

Lauren let out a low chuckle as she threw on her leather jacket. “Camz my eyes are up here.” Lauren put a hand in front of her body to show Camila the way up.

“Umm...hhmm. Yeah.” Camila started turning bright red and suddenly found the floor very interesting.

“Come on Camz let’s get out of here it’s going to be a fun night.” Lauren led Camila back outside, smiling the whole time.

Lauren walked into the precinct still holding Camila’s hand, smiling as everyone there dropped there mouths. No one had ever really seen the girl smile let alone holding hands with anyone. Lauren just laughed as she made her way to the lockers and threw all of her and Camila’s stuff inside. 

“Keep your phone on you. Just make sure it is hidden and on vibrate.” Lauren whispered in Camila’s ear.

Camila placed her phone in her bra as Lauren leaned in like she was telling her a secret.

“Good?” Lauren asked.

“Yep.” Camila said.

“Alright then let’s go get you some fake ids.” Lauren laughed pulling her into the main office.

After everything was all set and everyone was briefed. Lauren and Camila both got phones and ids and made their way out to Lauren’s bike.

“Why are we taking your actual bike? Wouldn’t somebody notice you on it on a regular day?”

“Yeah maybe someone eventually will put two and two together. For now though it is the easiest way to get away from the parties without getting caught. It’s just easier to slip through everyone.” Lauren said.

“Oh. Well that makes sense.” Camila said.

Camila threw the backpack over her shoulder and got on the bike behind Lauren for their ride across the city. Lauren decided to take the long way enjoying the way Camila gripped her tighter on all the turns. Camila caught on and just hugged her tight for the rest of the ride enjoying the city passing by in a blur.

Lauren made a pit stop at the gas station and took the bag with her to the bathroom. The two continued on to their destination within five minutes. Camila noticed though that Lauren came out with a more determined look on her face though. Camila was hoping that Lauren hadn’t done any of the drugs. Not that she thought Lauren would be one to do that but the sudden change in demeanor was just odd for Camila to see.

Lauren opted to park a block away and walk the rest so no one really saw where they came from. Lauren took the bag from Camila, then grabbed her hand and walked with her to the warehouse. Lauren noticed the surveillance van right away, if she noticed it sticking out then for sure someone else did. This is going to be a fun night Lauren thought to herself.

“CJ! CJ OVER HERE!!” The blonde from earlier waved them over.

“Ready Kasey?” Lauren asked Camila.

“I still can’t believe you got them to give me that name.” Camila smiled and let Lauren lead the way.

“Wait, is this the girl from the beach? Is she really your girlfriend?” Blondie asked.

“Yeah actually. Got a problem with that?” Lauren got defensive.

“Well yeah. I kind of wanted you all to myself tonight.” Blondie said with a wink and lead them upstairs to the VIP space.

Lauren squeezed Camila’s hand tight as they made their way through the back rooms and upstairs. Camila was trying to take it all in. The loud music, the bright colors moving at various speeds, and the people that were all over each other everywhere. Remembering that she was impersonating a party girl Camila made a mental note on how everyone was dancing. The thing that threw Camila off though was Jacks partner was down on the dance floor in the DJ booth. Camila automatically got a bad feeling.   
Camila pulled Lauren to a stop, which Lauren gave her a weird look back.

Camila pulled Lauren close and whispered to her as quietly as she could. “Why is she in here?” Camila head nodded.

Lauren didn’t say anything for a minute and Camila could see she was thinking of a way to say something. “Let’s just say she’s the double double.” Lauren smiled and kissed Camila.

Camila thought about it then understood. Double double was one of the girls plays for a fake lost player that was actually who they were going to pass to the whole time when the defender relaxed. Camila figured as long as Lauren knew what was going on then she would go with it. Maybe that is why the other detective had given her two pills to hold on to. She also told Camila that she would know when to use them.

Lauren and Camila were lead to the office in the warehouse were two huge body guards stood. 

“Yo CJ, who’s the deb?” The one on the left asked lowering his shades with one hand.

“One she is no deb and two shouldn’t you be laying off the chez n fries?” Lauren fired back.

“Alright. Alright. Didn’t mean to get your panties in a bunch.” The guard threw his hands up in defense. The other guy laughed. 

“You know the rules though no one in but you.” The guard on the right said stopping Camila as she was about to enter.

“Well here’s the thing boys this is a huge shipment and I was told to take precautions so either she comes with me or we’re out. You know how pissed she gets when she’s kept waiting. So do you want to be the one that tells her I left?” Lauren never let go of Camila’s hand and shot the guards a death glare, that Camila knew was very intimidating. Being as she was on the other side of it more than once when they were playing basketball.

When the guards didn’t move out of the way Lauren turned to leave.

“Wait okay. You know I have to check her though.” Left guard said.

“Fine but I’m watching you, Jeff.” Lauren stared him down.

Lauren and Camila made their way into the office behind blondie. 

“Well if it isn’t my favorite green eyed beauty. Oh and you brought a friend. Hhmm...let me guess you worked Jeff over right?” An older lady behind the monitors asked.

Lauren laughed, “You know me so well. Where do you want to do this?” 

The older lady stood up and walked around the monitors, Camila took in her appearance if anything she could have been blondie’s mother. The woman looked like she just walked off wall street. The older woman had the typical blonde hair blue eyes, was very fit, and had legs for miles in a short skirt and killer heels. Camila couldn’t help but take the older woman in.

With wandering eyes the woman noticed that Camila was almost studying her.

“I think maybe your friend over there might want something more than just a teenage daydream.” The woman laughed.

“Nope I was just admiring a pretty face. You look amazing by the way.” Camila said smoothly and wondered where that came from. “Besides I already snagged the hottest chick out there.” Camila winked at Lauren.

“I like this one CJ she’s feisty.” The woman chuckled and pulled a bag out from under her desk.

Lauren opened her backpack and set it on the desk showing the lady the drugs inside. The woman nodded and they exchanged bags. Lauren turned and smiled at Camila grabbing her hand and getting ready to leave.

“Wait!” Lauren froze she knew what was coming and this was not the night for it.

“I think you need to lighten up a little. Why don’t you prove to me that these are the real deal?” Lauren squeezed Camila’s hand harder than she realized.

“Ow! Lo..love you but stop please.” Camila almost let Lauren’s nickname slip.

Lauren let go and mouthed “sorry” to Camila. “Why tonight, Judy? You’ve never doubted me before.” Lauren said.

“Just entertain me with the idea that I believe everyone does bad things every once in a while.” Judy said crossing her arms.

Camila and Lauren both knew that the drug tests for the basketball team were coming up if either of them were to come out positive the would be kicked off the team. Effectively ruining any chance either would have in getting a scholarship. Even though Lauren would easily be able to explain that she was doing it for her job, but that in itself would still not stop her from getting kicked off the team.

“Fine.” Lauren moved towards the table trying to figure out which one would be easiest to hide on a drug screen.

Camila quickly came over and opened one of the bags and handed Lauren a pill. “Trust me babe, this on will make the world so much brighter.” Camila winked at Lauren.

Lauren took the pill from Camila’s hand and dry popped it. “Thanks Kasey.” 

“Now let’s go party babe!” Camila grabbed Lauren’s hand and drug them out of the room and down the stairs.

Lauren pulled Camila off to a secluded area in the back of the building. “What the hell Camz what did you do? Do you even know what you gave me? We have drug tests for basketball, I can’t get kicked off the team it is the only thing that is getting me away from him. I can’t stay here. I can’t let me brother and sister go through what I have....” 

Camila could think of one thing to get Lauren to shut up and kissed her. Lauren tried pushing her away, but Camila just held her until Lauren started kissing back. Then Camila pulled away.

“I know exactly what a basketball scholarship would do for you. That is why I gave you an aspirin out of my pocket. I palmed it when she started saying something about you needing to let loose. I knew that you wouldn’t dive right in. So if you see any of her people you need to act like you’re seeing things.”

“Camila I could kiss you right now!” Lauren blurted out and kissed the girl again.

“What’s stopping you?" Camila asked as seductively as she could.

Lauren wasted no time and crashed their lips together. It took Camila a second to kiss her back but when she did she tried to put as much feeling into it as possible. Camila put her hands on Lauren’s shoulders and absently played with the little hairs on the back of Lauren’s neck. Lauren’s hands went to Camila’s waist and pulled her closer into herself. Lauren was loving the feeling of bare skin in her hands. Lauren was making small patterns with her hands that was driving Camila crazy. Lauren backed Camila up against the nearest wall and grabbed Camila’s hands and pinned them against the wall above Camila’s head. Lauren started kissing down Camila’s jaw line and was nipping and kissing every sensitive spot on Camila’s neck but what sent Camila over the edge was when Lauren backed off and then blew on her skin. Camila let out a moan that caught her off guard and she blushed instantly.

Lauren made her way to Camila’s ear. “Don’t stop. I’m really liking all the little noises you make.” Lauren nipped at Camila’s earlobe as she pulled away and made her way back down to Camila’s neck. 

Camila melted as Lauren said those words. As Lauren made a point to mark that Camila was taken she let go of the girls hands and trailed her fingertips down her arms to her shoulders. Lauren moved from Camila’s neck to her collar bones. Camila still hadn’t moved her arms from above her head, but she looked to the sky with eyes closed enjoying the attention Lauren was giving her. Lauren got brave when Camila didn’t hesitate and brought her fingertips even farther down to Camila’s hips. Then slowly trailed them higher as she moved to kissing Camila again. Lauren slowly moved her hands under Camila’s shirt. Lauren finally felt that lacey material and looked to Camila. Lauren backed off wanting to make sure that this was okay before proceeding. When Camila finally opened her eyes and realized where Lauren’s hand was she wasted no time if giving a nod yes and pulled Lauren back in for a kiss. Lauren palmed Camila’s breast as started rubbing them slowly enjoying the way Camila was wriggling to get closer to the girl and the moans that where now escaping Camila’s lips on a regular. 

Lauren finally moved closer to the girl again when Camila dropped her arms and tugged on Lauren’s belt loops. Lauren placed one leg in between Camila’s and pressed into her. Camila felt a jolt of pure bliss pass through her and pulled Lauren in even further if that was even possible. Lauren dropped her hands back down to her thighs and helped Camila jump up. Camila instinctively wrapped her legs around Lauren’s waist. When Lauren backed her into the wall further and moved her hips just the right way she smiled into the kiss as Camila let out her loudest moan yet.

“Jesus fucking Christ!!” Lauren and Camila heard a familiar voice and nearly jumped out of their skin.

“I told you it was them Mani! I also told you that they’d probably be doing that in there! You owe me twenty bucks by the way!” Dinah said as she turned her back from the door and yelled to be heard over the music.

“Fucking Christ Dinah! What the hell are you doing here?” Lauren said letting go of a very deep red blushing Camila.

“Well we heard about this amazing rave happening tonight and we needed a night out! So here we are. We figured you two would be practicing but where surprised when we saw you come down the stairs and sneak into a closet. I thought you might hurt each other considering you hate each other on the court.” Dinah smirked wiggling her eyebrows at Lauren. 

Lauren grabbed Camila’s hand pulling her closer. “Well I can say we definitely don’t hate each other. If that little show you got says anything.” Lauren looked at Camila’s blush that was going away but came right back.

“Oh My God! Shut up Lo!” Camila said hitting Lauren’s arm hiding her face in Lauren’s neck.

“You two are just so damn cute! It’s disgusting!” Mani said from behind Dinah.

Lauren just laughed. “Wait did y’all get Ally here too?”

Ally popped around the corner. “Hey y’all what’s up? You two were totally macking right? This is so cute and adorable. Our little Lauren and Camila are finally getting it together.” Ally cheered joyfully jumping up and down clapping her hands at the two blushing girls in front of her.

“Okay well as much as I want for us to go out there and have a good time. I need all of you to leave and go home. You can’t be here right now. Oh and don’t call us by our names.” Lauren said.

“Why?” “What’s going on?” “Why the hell can’t I call you by your name?” The girls started firing questions.

“STOP! Okay listen I will tell you later as long as you all leave right now. There is only about twenty more minutes till all hell breaks loose around here. So please just get out of here and we will meet you at the beach cafe and we can talk.” Lauren said.

“Lolo, Mila. Are you two okay? Really? What did you take?” Ally asked mothering the two girls.

“Ally we didn’t take anything! We just can’t tell you what we’re doing right now. So please just get out of here and meet us at the ice cream bar in forty five minutes. Okay?” Lauren said.

“Alright fine.” Ally said when she noticed the distress in Lauren’s eyes.

“Let’s go girls.” Ally said grabbing Mani and Dinah and dragging them out the door.

“So what now?” Camila asked when they saw the girls make it outside.

“Well I am up for finishing what we started.” Lauren spun Camila around to face her and smirked.

“I don’t think we have time for that now.” Camila playfully pushed Lauren away.

“Besides doesn’t that bag need to be delivered?” Camila asked.

“Yeah I am waiting for the signal...and there it is.” Lauren said grabbing Camila’s hand and dragging her towards the DJ’s booth.

“Yo DJ let me spin for a minute!” Lauren yelled as she got behind the table.

Camila watched as she set the bag down next to the other officer. The lady bent down and exchanged everything from one bag to the other, gave Lauren a vinyl and then left with her bag in tow. Unless you were right next to them you couldn’t see a thing. Not two seconds later the DJ was back and taking over before Lauren really messed with anything.

“That was fucking smooth.” Camila said.

“I know right. Well time to dance a little.” Lauren grabbed Camila’s hand and dragged her to the middle of the dance floor before she had a chance to decline.

As the bass dropped and the drums started Lauren started swaying her hips to the beat. Camila almost looked hypnotized at the way Lauren was making her body move. Lauren motioned with her fingers for Camila to come closer, Camila smiled and walked over to a sirking Lauren. Lauren placed her hands on Camila’s hips and started helping her move to the beat. Camila was looking at her hips trying to dance to the rhythm on her own. Lauren smiled at how hard Camila was concentrating on getting it right. It was the same look she got when they had to learn the new plays.

Lauren lifted Camila chin up so their eyes could meet. When chocolate met evergreen both smiled instinctively. “Don’t worry about getting it right just go with what feels natural babe.”

“I don’t want to look like an idiot though.” Camila said.

“You will never be or look like an idiot. You’re beautiful Camz.” Lauren said.

“Thanks Lo. You’re pretty gorgeous yourself, ya know.” Camila stated.

“No you’re the prettiest I have ever seen in my almost eighteen years of life. Nothing will ever compare to your compassion, your beauty, your intelligence. The way your eyes shine at the smallest of amusement. The way your eyes go from light to dark when you are mad or concentrating on beating me in a scrimmage. Yeah don’t laugh that is how I always knew where you were going, you move with your eyes Camz and it is absolutely beautiful when you do so.” Lauren said resting their foreheads together and looking into Camila’s eyes.

Camila was getting ready to say something when all the power went out of the building.

“Camz stay with me babe don’t let go!!” Lauren yelled to Camila as she grabbed the girls hand and started pulling them to the back exit.

Lauren felt her hand tug down as Camila tripped and pulled Lauren with her. True to her word she never let go and Lauren ended up landing on top of her. The two girls could just barely see each other and Camila blushed as they both started laughing.   
“You always were clumsy. I have still yet to figure out how you keep it to a minimum during practice and games. Now come on.” Lauren said getting up and pulling Camila to her feet.

Lauren looked around and the police, her team, had started making their way into the building rounding everyone up. Lauren had yet to see Jacks though and then she knew that it had to be true. Lauren needed to get Camila out of there before all hell really broke loose. Lauren had seen a back exit in Judy’s office and knew that was the only way she was getting them out of here. 

“Come on this way.” Lauren gripped tight again and dragged Camila back to the stairs.

“Where are we going?” Camila asked when they got to the office and no one was there.

“We are going out the window up to the roof and jumping to the next building.” Lauren said like it was nothing.

Camila came to a sudden stop. “What the hell are you crazy Lauren? We can’t jump to another roof top.”

Lauren let go of Camila’s hand and grabbed her face with both hands running her thumbs on Camila’s cheeks. “It is only like a three foot jump. There is nothing to it. You will probably jump twice as far as I do anyways. So please don’t worry you got this.” 

Camila smiled at how soft Lauren was being with her. It was a side that she rarely ever saw and she was in love with it. “Alright then Evil Knievel lead the way let’s do this!” Camila said trying to shake the nerves.

The girls heard footsteps behind them as they got out the window and closed it hoping no one would follow them. Camila went up the ladder as fast as she could with Lauren close behind her. What Lauren wasn’t expecting was for Jacks to be waiting for them up on the roof.

“What the hell Jacks? What are you doing up here? You were suppose to follow the drugs and get them back.” Lauren asked keeping herself between Camila and Jacks.

“Well see I need to ask you something and I figured you would take the easy way out and jump the roof to get away.” Jacks said with a devious smile. “So Lauren how did you figure it out? I have been doing this for years and no one has ever even thought twice about looking my way. Now on this bust I follow the drugs and come to find out they are not drugs to begin with. Did you make a pit stop before coming to the party Lauren? Who did you give the actual drugs too? You know this is going to get you a long time in jail right? You’re what six months from being eighteen, they will throw the book at you and treat you like an adult. The only good part for you is...oh wait there is no good part because I’m pretty sure your little girlie there doesn’t know anything, right?” Jacks was slowly getting closer and closer to the girls.

Lauren shoved Camila farther behind her as Jacks made them circle around, making jumping to the other roof the only option. Lauren still had the duffel bag of money strapped to her back and was tempted to throw it over the edge to see if Jacks was only there for the money. Lauren did the next best thing and tugged on the duffel bag strap and sure enough Jacks got a little jumpy. All Lauren could think was perfect she now had a distraction if she needed it.

“I’m getting impatient Lauren and you know how I get when I’m impatient at getting what I want. So Lauren tell me what gave me away? What was it?” Jacks asked.

“It was you. You are just oozing with that kind of vibe. Most of all though it is the constant pills that you are taking that you put into an advil container. You do know that it is not that hard for someone to take one of those and test them right. The dead give away though once was the powder on your credit card. I mean I saw that one from like a mile away. Also the fact that well you had blood shot eyes all the time, and you never drive unless you are on duty. Even then you usually get one of the rookies to drive for you and it’s always a different one every time. What really sold it for me was just you not even caring the day I came into the station covered in bruises and cuts. You told everyone you would take care of it so they would back off, but not once did you ever ask if I was okay. You never even tried to figure out what the hell was going on, you just ignored the fact that I was...am in pain. You as a detective....as a human being are suppose to care about why a minor is coming into the precinct covered in bruises. You however completely ignored it. You always said you cared but I knew better, even though it was nice looking to you as a father in some aspects. However as of right now you are just like him. I will never accept anyone that does anything like him. I will push them out of my life faster than you can say “The Golden State Warriors are Champions.” Lauren said almost on the brink of tears knowing that she was losing Jacks. Jacks truly had always been there and actually given her great advice. Everything was just coming to a bitter sweet ending.

“Jacks why didn’t you just go? Why did you have to come up here? You should have just cut your loses.” Lauren said afraid now of what was going to happen to Jacks as she saw his partner climb the last little bit onto the roof top.

“Lauren you know that I am not going anywhere without the money it is the only thing I need to get out of this god forsaken place. Now if you will so kindly give me the back I will let both of you go. If not something not so pleasant might happen.” Jacks said as he placed his right hand on the gun on his waist.

Lauren again pulled Camila further behind her as she felt Camilas hand grab onto hers tightly. Lauren would be damned if she let anything happen to her. Lauren would give her life for the girl. Lauren felt the all to familiar felling of butterflies in her stomach. Lauren suppressed a smile at the feelings. Lauren felt Camila shake behind her and knew she needed to get this over with. 

“I will give it to you if you swear to me that nothing happens to Camila. I mean it Jacks nothing.” Lauren said lifting the strap over her head.

“You know I don’t make promises. However if you give me the money right now I will let the girl off the roof untouched.

Lauren saw Jacks smirk and knew that he was playing games. Lauren was glad she had the man distracted. “No Jacks swear to me that absolutely nothing ever happens to Camila because of this incident right here.”

Jacks smiled and applauded Lauren. “I should have know that you would figure me out. You are way too smart for your own good girl. But yes I swear to you that I will not harm Camila in any way.”

Lauren took the bag and threw it in between them, as Jacks moved into get the duffel bag his partner and two other officers tackled him to the ground. Jacks gave a good fight but the two cops had him pinned to the ground as his partner took the gun from his hip and handcuffed him. Lauren was just glad that it was all over. As Jacks mumbled and grumbled the whole time he was being taken into custody Lauren turned around and hugged Camila close to her.

“Hey it’s okay. I will never let anything happen to you okay? I’ve got you sweetie.” Lauren cradled the shaking girl in her arms.

“Is this how it is every time? Are you putting your life in danger every time you go undercover like this? What ever happened to Judy? Did you know that there wasn’t real drugs in the bag the whole time? What do we do now?” Camila wouldn’t stop asking questions so Lauren took it upon herself to kiss Camila to get her to be quite.

Camila was a little taken aback by Lauren and surprised but soon kissed the girl back. Lauren pulled back after a minute and took Camila’s face between her hands. 

“Listen this was one case. Heather and I have been working on this for over a year, and it is breaking my heart right now to find out that it is true. I always saw Jacks as being an older brother the father figure that I wished I had. Here is the thing though, this being finished means that I am done. I told them when this one was over that I was done. I decided that a long time ago, because I knew after I graduated I would have to stay close to take care of my siblings. I am going to fight for them. Jacks was going to help me though, so now I don’t know what to do. I don’t know why I am telling you all of this either. I guess I am trying to settle you down and take your mind off of things. Just tell me that you are okay Camz.” Lauren searched the girls eyes to see if she was hurt.

“I’m fine Lauren. Really I am. I am sorry that this was how the night unfolded. I’m sure that he was expecting you to be high or something, Jacks probably told Judy to make you take something. Thank you Lauren for making sure that I was okay the whole time. I don’t know what I would have done if you would’ve been hurt though.” Camila gave Lauren a peck on the lips as she pulled Lauren’s hands down and interlocked their fingers

“Girls.” Heather said from behind Lauren as she smacked her a little hard on the back and Lauren almost doubled over in pain. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah we’re okay.” Lauren said fighting back tears and gripping Camila’s hand hard. 

“Lauren what’s wrong? Really don’t lie what is wrong? Where are you hurt at?” Heather did the motherly thing too well and was pulling up the back of Lauren’s shirt as she talked and gasped when she saw the scars.

“Heather STOP! I’m fine.” Lauren tried pulling down her shirt and twisting away to stop her but it was way too late.

“Who the hell hit you Lauren? Don’t you dare lie to me either!” Heather stood in front of Lauren crossing her arms.

“No one I fell on the gravel path the other day. It’s nothing.” Lauren tried to keep looking in Heather’s eyes to try and pass off her lie but failed miserably. 

“Well that is a load of shit. You don’t think I know what those are do you? Well guess what trust me I know where those kind of marks come from. You may not want to tell me right now, but trust me Lauren I do understand. My Uncle was one hell of a mean drunk. You may not want anyone to know right now, but come talk to me when you’re ready. Please?” Heather still had her arms crossed but Lauren could see that her eyes were compassionate, understanding and sympathetic. 

“If I ever have anything to talk about I will come to you first. Okay?” Lauren said letting her grip on Camila’s hand soften.

“I will take that for now. Are you doing your statement tonight or tomorrow?” Heather asked Lauren.

“I will turn it in tomorrow. I’ve got some explaining to do to my friends.” Lauren looked to Camila and smiled.

“Alright then. Just leave it on my desk in a sealed envelope. I’ll be out of the office tomorrow.” Heather said.

“Okay will do.” Lauren said.

“Alright you two get out of here and have some good clean fun tonight.” Heather said turning away from the girls. “Oh and Lauren win the game tomorrow huh.” 

Lauren and Camila laughed forgetting they had a game the next night. “You know it!” Lauren shouted as she threw her hand on Camila’s waist and pulled her tight.

“Come on let’s get out of here. The girls are waiting.” Camila said.

“Yeah let’s go.” Lauren let go of Camila and helped her down off the roof. 

 

Back to the ice cream shop.....

“So that is why I am always helping you with the kids? You were out partying all night? You suck Lauser!” Dinah said.

“I’m sorry Dinah I wanted to tell you but it was just safer not to. I never wanted any part of my real life involved in that life. It’s over now though so it’s all good.” Lauren said.

“Wait...how did Camila get involved in it then?” Normani asked. 

“Remember the day we went to the beach with all the kids? Well I got spotted there by random chance and Camz got dragged into it from there. The girl thought she was my girlfriend and if I showed up without her I was screwed.” Lauren said smiling at Camila.

“Awe” all the girls did at once. “Wait it is true then? Someone finally got Lauren to agree to be in relationship. Holy shit what kind of super powers do you have Mila? Please teach us your ways.” Dinah said.

Everyone started laughing at how Lauren was turning a deeper and deeper shade of red as Camila gave her a kiss and wouldn’t stop staring into those amazing green eyes. Camila made Lauren feel like she could fight the world with her hands tied behind her back. Lauren felt herself relaxing and knew that the people around her tonight were the ones that mattered the most to her and she would fight for any of them. 

All the girls kept talking and poking fun at Camila and Lauren for the rest of the night finally able to relax that their friends could see the sparks that were between them for so long. As Dinah truly looked at Lauren she realized that her friend looked truly happy. Dinah loved the smile that would grace Lauren’s face when she looked at Camila, it was the same one she gave her siblings. Something was bothering Dinah though, why did Lauren always bring the kids over to her house and never talked about her dad anymore. Lauren’s dad used to be there for everything and was both of their biggest fan. Dinah still sees him in the bleachers for all their home games, but still wonders why Lauren never talks to him while he is there. Dinah is broke out of her thoughts when Camila laughs out....

“Well this is not at all how I thought the night would end.” Camila huffed out in between laughs.

Everyone kept laughing at the two girls in front of them. Camila caught Lauren’s eyes as the later blushed deeper. Camila smiled knowing that everything just might be alright for the two of them. Lauren busted one of the dirtiest cops in the precinct and was now a shoe in if she wanted to continue down a career as a police officer. Lauren felt truly happy for once in her life and she somehow knew it was all because of the brown eyed gorgeous girl sitting next to her right now.

Now all they had to do was teach their two teams to work together and play as a team, that and hopefully no more mishaps with Lauren’s dad.


	8. Chapter 8

“For everyone just tuning in. The newly made super Tigers are taking over this game and are acting like the team we all knew was going to be unstoppable. Continuing their undefeated season the Tigers are looking better than ever tonight. The scoreboard reads 74 to 53 as we start the third period. Let’s go Tigers!!” The announcer caught everyone up.

Lauren knew that they had this game in the bag but still made sure she stayed composed. Lauren and Camila could tell some of the other girls were relaxing a little too much and were afraid they would start making more mistakes than usual. 

“Lo, their gonna start a full press. We need to adjust.” Camila said as she started to go to her spot.

Lauren turned and saw the other team start moving. Camz was right. “Fullton!! Fullton!!” Lauren yelled and her team got ready for the press.

Dinah in-bounded the ball. Lauren turned and was almost instantly met with a double team. Lauren looked around and found Normani open at half court and threw the ball. Almost as if the other team knew the play they stole the ball and took it in for a lay up.

Camila and Lauren looked at each other like that was weird but went back to their spots again as Dinah went to throw the ball in again.

“Georgey!! Georgey!!” 

Lauren yelled calling a different press play. Yet again the ball was stolen and put in for another two points. Camila and Lauren both looked at their coaches for what they should call next. A time out was called.

“What the hell?” Lauren said to Camz as the walked to the huddle.

“I have no idea. I mean those plays are new since both teams joined only we know them. They are the first team to press us.” Camz said shrugging her shoulders and joining the huddle.

“Alright girls heres the deal they know the plays. Somehow over halftime they figured us out. So play street ball.”

“Really coach you think that is the best idea?” Ally asked.

“Yeah come on guys they won’t even see this coming!” Lauren was excited.

“Their going to think we are just going to run through our playbook and do everything till we give up. This is our chance to show everyone that we are a real threat. They can’t steal the ball if they don’t know where it’s going.” Camz agreed with Lauren.

“Let’s do this!” Normani added.

“Alright hands in! Let’s go Tigers on three!” Lauren said.

“Three!”

“Let’s go Tigers!!!” Everyone yelled and took the court.

Lauren nudged Camila as they took the floor. “Let’s have some fun, shall we?” 

Camila loved it when Lauren looked like she was having the time of her life. So Camila just smiled back and said ‘Hell yeah babe let’s do this!” as she ran to where she wanted to be.

Lauren could literally see the other team trying to figure out what play they were running. Now she knew for sure that someone had leaked their playbook. 

The game went on and the Tigers won. The girls were excited about still being undefeated but Lauren was still a little cautious as to if some of the other teams had their plays as well. Lauren pushed the thoughts to the back of her head as she celebrated the win with her teammates. 

~~~~~~~~~

“Hey DJ?” Lauren yelled running to catch up with Dinah before school started.

“Yeah Lauser?” 

“Can you watch C and T tonight?” Lauren pouted her lip and everything.

“When have I ever said no? You know I will, I love those two.” Dinah said smiling.

“Thanks! I owe you big you know.” 

“No you don’t. I get it now. Stop trying to repay me when you should have just told me in the first place.” Dinah said side hugging Lauren.

“I know. Still, thank you for everything.” Lauren hugged Dinah back.

“No problem babe.” Dinah answered and then went on to her class as the warning bell rang.

~~~~~~

“Mila are you coming to my house tonight, Ally and Mani are?” Dinah asked walking into class with Mila.

“No. Not tonight. I have plans already.” Mila said.

“Really what are you doing?” Dinah asked.

“Just some...um family stuff.” Mila covered.

“Oh okay.” Dinah dropped it as the teacher came in and started class.

~~~~

“Are you ready?” Lauren asked while staring at the ceiling in Camila’s bedroom.

“Yeah. I’m coming.” Camila said from her bathroom.

“That’s what she said.” Lauren mumbled to herself, not noticing Camila standing in the doorway.

“What was that?” Camila said with her hands on her hips and a knowing smile.

Lauren turned toward Camila and sat up on the bed. “I-I s-said...wow you look beautiful.” Was all she could get out.

Camila blushed and looked down at her feet saying softly. “Thanks.”

Lauren walked over to Camila and lifted her chin so they were looking in each others eyes. “You know I mean it right? You are beautiful Camz.”

Camila took in the sincerity of Lauren’s eyes and blushed some more but smiled anyways. “Are you going to tell me where we are going?”

“Nope but we have to make a pit stop before we get there.” Lauren said grabbing Camila’s hand and walking them out the door.

“Mom I’ll be back later, I’m going with Lauren! Love you!.” Camila got out as the door closed.

Lauren held the door open for Camila. Camila smiled as she got in the car. “So chivalrous.”

Lauren got in the car and drove them to a back of a store that Camila had never seen before. Lauren came back out after about five minutes and placed something in the trunk. Camila couldn’t tell Lauren was trying to hide it and the angle just wasn’t right for Camila to see.

“What was all of that?” Camila asked when Lauren got back in the car and started driving to their destination.

“Oh...nothing. Just some stuff.” Lauren said not taking her eyes off the road.

“Okay then. Will you tell me where we are going then?” Camila asked again.

“No it’s a surprise.” Lauren laughed and grabbed Camila’s hand knowing it was bothering the girl.

“You’re so mean.” Camila stuck her tongue out at Lauren smiling.

The two girls drove for another twenty minutes until Lauren pulled onto an unmarked street and then drove a little ways into a forest and parked the car.

“Okay. Are you planning on killing me? Not going to lie I’m a little scared.” Camila asked.

“No. If I wanted to do that I would have done it earlier when factors were on my side.” Lauren said with a smirk.

“Fine. So what are we doing here?” Camila asked getting out of the car and looking around.

“Well that’s just it, can you put this blindfold on and trust me?” Lauren asked not sure if the girl would do it or not.

“Now I’m sure you’re going to kill me, but yeah give it here.” Camila said laughing. Lauren walked up behind her and tied the scarf around Camila’s eyes.

“Can you see?” 

“No.”

“Okay stay right here and don’t move. I’m gonna be two seconds.” Lauren said let her hands fall down Camila’s arms.

“Okay.” Camila said as Lauren let go and walked to the trunk to get her stuff.

“Alright. This way.” Lauren said shutting the trunk and lacing her fingers with Camila’s.

Lauren guided Camila down the familiar trail that she had traveled many a times before. Lauren loved it in the fall with all the leaves changing, and just the peacefulness of being away from the city. As Lauren guided Camila to the top of the hill, her breath hitched as she took in the view.

“Lo, what’s wrong?” Camila asked a little worried.

“Nothing it’s just....well see for yourself.” Lauren said as she undid the blindfold.

“Oh....wow.” Was all Camila could think to say about the view in front of her.

Both girls stood and took in the view. The two girls walked up and sat on the small cliff and watched the sunset through the city. They watched as the orange, yellows, pinks and purples changed in the sky and melted together. Lauren slowly scooted closer to Camila as she watched the shorter girls legs swinging back in forth. Lauren smiled at the fact that Camila was still like a little kid. Lauren made it to where she was sitting right next to Camila so that every time her leg swung it was rubbing up against her. When Camila noticed she stopped swinging her legs and looked to Lauren smiling.

“Hey.”

“Hey yourself.” Lauren said with a smile she just couldn’t wipe off her face.

“So what are we doing out here? Where exactly is out here?” Camila asked as she once again looked to the city.

“Well this is the last place my mom ever brought me before she died. This is the last place that I remember being truly happy.” Lauren said as she stared out into the sunset.

Camila turned and hugged Lauren. Lauren melted into the hug. “Well thanks for letting me share this special place with you. I know that must be hard.”

Lauren looked to Camila as she backed away from the hug. “That’s just it. Nothing is hard with you. It just flows out of me. I can’t stop my mouth from wanting to tell you all the thoughts in my head. You are the only one that ever pieced together that something was happening with me. No one has ever paid that much attention to me.” Lauren looked back to the sunset.

“No one ever cares for the back story of the popular kid. They just expected me to be the best, so that is what I did. I got so good at hiding that I forgot a little of myself along the way. You however made me stop. You gave me something to fight for. You were my arch rival and that was what made me fight everyday. Some how you were there for me even when you didn’t know it.” Camila just smiled and nodded for Lauren to keep going.

“Alright I’m pretty sure you already know it but...well you’re special to me. I mean that. You some how get me to smile and everyone on the team keeps asking where the hell bitchy Lauren went.” The girls both laughed.

“I don’t want her to come back though. I like this version of me. It’s because of you though. So thanks Camz for believing in me.” Lauren said with as much sincerity as she could.

“Lauren I didn’t do all of this. You did.” Camila took Lauren’s hands. “I just told you what you already knew.”

Lauren was about to lean in and kiss Camila when Camila’s stomach growled. The two girls dropped their heads and started laughing. 

“I guess I better feed you first.” Camila watched as a true smile went across Lauren’s face.

“Yeah I guess so.” Camila agreed loving this side of Lauren.

~~~~~~~

“So wait Camila and Lauren both backed out tonight?” Mani asked.

“Yep. They think they’re so slick.” Dinah said grabbing a slice of pizza and settling down on her bed. 

“They really aren’t. What did Mila say she was doing again?” Mani asked.

“Something about a last minute project.” Ally said.

“What! Mila told me she had a family thing. They are so busted.” Dinah smiled.

“Wait their on a DATE!!” Mani yelled catching on. “It’s about damn time.” 

“I know right I was kind of getting tired of the lovey eyes.” Dinah said throwing a pillow at Mani.

“Lauren looks really happy though. I mean she reminds me of the Lauren from before.” Dinah said sitting up. “If Camila is what made her come back then I am all for it.”

“Me too.” Mani said.

“Yep. Now what movie are we watching?” Ally asked.

While the girls went back and forth deciding what movie to watch Taylor came into the room crying. Ally noticed first and went to the little girl instantly.

“What’s wrong baby girl? Did you have a bad dream?” Ally took the girl into her arms and wiped away the tears. 

“I don’t feel good. It hurts. I want Lolo.” Taylor said and just started crying more.

“What hurts? Where baby?” Ally asked worried.

“My tummy. It won’t stop.” At that Taylor just out right started bawling in Ally’s arms.

Dinah wasted no time and sent Lauren a text hoping she got in time, then ran out of the room to find her mom.

~~~~~~

“This was really nice Lauren thanks for bringing me here.” Camila said as the two placed everything back in the basket.

“It’s not over yet.” Lauren grabbed Camila’s hand and took her back to the cliff.

Lauren laid down the blanket and then sat down pulling Camila with her. The girls giggled and then Lauren laid down on her back staring up at the night sky. Camila soon followed and snuggled into Lauren’s arms when she opened them up for her. Camila laid her head on Lauren’s arm and stared up at the stars thankful to have the warmth coming from Lauren. Camila felt herself shiver. Lauren sat up when that happened and reached back into the basket and pulled out one of her hoodies and gave it to Camila.

“Here. Put this on.” 

“What about you won’t you get cold?” Camila asked as she put the hoodie on.

“Don’t worry I’m good. Besides you look cute in my name.” Lauren smiled as Camila realized it was one of Lauren’s basketball hoodies.

“Oh really.” Camila couldn’t help herself and pounced on Lauren and started tickling her. 

“Cam-Ca-Camz....stop....please...” Lauren was laughing too hard to say anything else.

Camila kept going not letting up, but as Lauren started turning really red Camila decided she probably should ease up. Lauren thought she was going in for more though and tried to get her hands down to Camila’s. Camila straddled Lauren and was sitting on her hips trying to restrain the slightly taller girl from getting the advantage. As Lauren’s hands started going for Camila’s, Camila reacted by holding both of Lauren’s hands above Lauren’s head. 

Lauren and Camila stopped laughing when they realized they were mere centimeters apart from each other. Camila felt every ragged breathe Lauren was taking to gain her breath back. Camila stared into Lauren’s eyes and then looked down to Lauren’s lips. Camila licked her lips instinctively. Lauren wasted no time and leaned up to kiss the girl once again getting interrupted. 

Both girls just laughed as Camila rested her forehead on Lauren’s.

“Maybe you should get that. I think you just got like fifteen messages.” Camila said rolling off of Lauren still laughing as she look to the stars.

Lauren laid there for a second hating the timing of everything but reached for her phone to find out what the hell was going on. After reading the first text Lauren sat up straight as a board. 

“Lo? What’s wrong?” Camila asked sitting up to see what got to Lauren.

“We need to go right now Camz.” Lauren stood up and started grabbing everything.

“Alright. Do you want me to drive?’

“No offense Camz but you have no idea where we are so no I will drive.” Lauren said and Camila grabbed her hand as they made their way to the car.

Lauren started driving back to the city. “What happened Lo?”

“Something’s wrong with Taylor. The girls said they were taking her to the E.R. because she is in pain.”

Camila grabbed Lauren’s hand that was resting on the shifter and ran her thumb across the back of it. 

“It’s going to be okay Lauren. Do you want me to stay with you?” 

“Yes.” Was all Lauren said as she focused on getting to the hospital as fast as she could.

~~~~~~~

“Dinah! Where is she? What happened?” Lauren yelled as soon as they meet the other girls in the waiting room.

Dinah walked up and gave Lauren a hug. “I don’t know Lauren, she just came in saying her stomach hurt and then wouldn’t stop crying. My mom’s in there with her right now.” 

Dinah let go of Lauren but Ally elbowed and nodded for Dinah to tell Lauren.

“Ummm....Lauren. There’s only a small problem.”

“What? What is it Dinah?” Lauren asked panicking. 

“Well they had to call your dad so they could do surgery. He’s in the room too.” Dinah said bracing herself for angry Lauren. Still not understanding what was going on between Lauren and her dad. Lauren sunk down into a chair and tried to process how she could get him to go away. Lauren had to think of something, anything to get him to go home. 

“Okay. Okay. What am I going to do? I can’t let him stay in there. Maybe if I go in he will just go home. Then everything will be okay.” Lauren said more to herself than any of the girls and started pacing back and forth. All Lauren could think was that something bad was about to happen. Here she was finally doing good and having something go right in her life. Lauren knew that her father was going to do something she just wasn’t quite sure yet what exactly that was yet.

Lauren was freaking out and she hadn’t even seen her dad yet. Lauren was thinking about running but she would never abandon Taylor like that. Lauren could almost feel her heartbeat starting to race like she was running a marathon. Lauren saw everyone in the room starting to blur. Lauren needed fresh air.

“Lauren? Lauren!?” Camila yelled grabbing Lauren’s arms and making Lauren face her.

“Hey. Look at me. I’m here okay. No take some deep breathes and come back to me.” Camila laid her hand on Lauren’s cheek and Lauren melted into it. Lauren tried to focus on that face in front of her. Lauren loved Camila’s eyes and how they could be so compassionate and caring. What had she done to deserve this kind of love. Lauren could see that Camila actually cared and it wasn’t something Lauren had been used to seeing lately.

Lauren focused on Camila’s hands that were now in her own hands rubbing soothing patterns in the palms of her hands. Those little swirls and dips were making Lauren focus even if it was just on those patterns. It took Lauren a few minutes but finally her heart slowed back down to a normal pace and her breathing evened back out. 

“Hey.” Camila said when she noticed that Lauren was actually looking at her.

“You wanna talk about it?” Camila knew that Lauren had a panic attack and was worried about something.

“Not right now. I need to go and see if Taylor is okay.” Lauren said and kissed Camila’s head.

“Do you want me to go with you?” 

“No. I’ll be alright.” Lauren said almost in a whisper. Yeah Lauren wanted Camila to go with her but she definitely didn’t want her dad to even hear Camila’s name let alone met her. Lauren was afraid something would happen to Camila and just wanted to keep her safe.

“Oh okay.” Camila looked a little hurt. “I’ll have my phone so just let me know if you need me.” Camila said as she went to join the girls.

Lauren watched as Camila joined the other girls and when Camila looked up she gave the girl a small smile. Hoping that Camila would realize that it was just so she was safe. Hoping that Camila knew it was for her own good.

~~~~~~

Lauren walked up to the nurses station nervously still not wanting to go in there by herself. Lauren felt an arm go around her waist. 

“You sure you don’t want me to go back with you?” Camila asked laced with worry.

“Camz yes I want you to go with me.” Camila smiled and hugged her a little tighter. 

“I can’t let you though.” Camila’s face dropped and her hold loosened. 

“I can’t let him know who you are or anything about you. I would never forgive myself if something happened to you.” Lauren said kissing Camila’s forehead. “Thank you though. It means more than you know.”

“Just so you know I’m not going anywhere. I’ll be right there when you come out.” Camila said pointing to the seat next to the girls and left Lauren to go see her sister.

“Umm, can you tell me what room Taylor Jauregui is in?”

“Come on I’ll take you sweetie.” The nurse got up to walk Lauren to her sisters room. 

Lauren got really nervous standing outside the door. Not wanting to face her dad but knowing she had too in order to make sure Taylor was okay. Lauren followed the nurse in the room not saying a word or looking up from the floor.

“So the rules are only two people allowed in the room at a time so I’m going to have to ask someone to follow me out.” The nurse said looking between Lauren’s dad and Dinah’s mom.

“I’ll be right outside with the girls Lauren.” Dinah’s mom said softly as she hugged Lauren and left the room with the nurse.

Lauren felt as sense of dread come over the room as soon as Dinah’s mom left the room. Lauren tried to power through it though and went to stand next to Taylor. Lauren knew her sister would only be out for a little while. It was only an appendicitis. Lauren knew it was a tough surgery but nothing the determined little girl wouldn’t bounce back from. What Lauren was really worried about was her dad and how he was going to react. As if reading her thoughts her dad broke the silence.

“Where were you?” He asked voice laced with malice.

“I-I was out.” Lauren said hating herself for stuttering.

“What do you mean you were out?” He said gripping the arm rest and speaking through his teeth.

“I was out running some errands that needed taking care of.” Lauren said hoping that he wouldn’t catch on that she was lying as she looked to the floor and then back up to him.

“I know that you’re lying and I will figure out the truth.” He said standing up and walking around the bed to where Lauren was standing. 

“When I find out what you were really doing.” Without warning he smacked Lauren across the face with all he had. “You will get it worse.”

Lauren felt the tears in her eyes instantly as her head swung to the right. Lauren couldn’t bring herself to look at him again as he left the room mumbling about going home. Lauren just held her face as she went to check it in the bathroom mirror. Lauren knew she was going to need a lot of concealer to cover the bruise the next day. Had she seen it coming she could have moved with the hit making it a little less noticeable. Lauren had to figure out some way to hide it so that no one would suspect anything if they saw her. Lauren just flipped her hair from the normal way she wore it and made sure that it covered her face. 

Dinah’s mom came back in shortly after and noticed that Lauren had flipped her hair to the opposite side of her head. She also noticed the tear tracks down Lauren’s face knowing that her dad would have had something malicious. 

“Lauren come her sweetie.” Dinah’s mom opened her arms for Lauren.

“Want to tell me what’s wrong? Well besides the given.” Lauren snuggled into the embrace missing the feeling of an adult hugging her.

“No I don’t want to talk about it.” Lauren said pulling back sooner than she wanted to. “Could I see Camila though?”

“Yeah sure sweetie. I’m going to take the other girls home now that we know Taylor is okay. So I will be back later.” Dinah’s mom said kissing Lauren’s head and walking to the door.

“Milika?” Lauren said.

“Yeah sweetie?”

“Thank you.” Milika just smiled at Lauren. “I mean it. I don’t know how I would survive without you treating us all like we are your kids. I don’t know how I will ever repay you for being with her tonight.” Lauren said and wiped the tears away just thinking of what might have happened if Taylor had been alone with their dad.

“Sweetie. I will always be there for you. Your mom was my best friend. One I promised her and two Taylor and Chris are the sweetest most respectful kids I have the pleasure of watching. Mostly because they learned from someone truly amazing.” 

Lauren looked at Milika confused as who she was talking about. “I mean you Lauren. They know what you do for them. They know that you are being their parent when you’re not. They don’t question it though because they know that you love them and would do absolutely anything for them. Lauren I don’t know what is happening that you don’t want to go home....ever. Just know that I am always here to listen. I won’t judge anything. I will be whatever it is that you need me to be for you. Okay?”

Lauren gave a small smile to Milika. “Okay. Thanks.” Lauren answered quietly like she was contemplating tell her.

Milika knew Lauren wasn’t going to say anything else so she left the girl to her thoughts. Hoping that one day Lauren would come to her. Lauren was brought out of her thoughts when Taylor started to speak.

“Lauren?” Taylor said with a scratchy, gravely voice.

Lauren rushed to the side of the bed. One hand in Taylor’s and the other gently landing on the girls cheek caressing it with her thumb. “I’m here baby. I’m here.” Lauren couldn’t hold back the tears anymore.

“Lauren. I’m thirsty.” Taylor said.

Lauren grabbed the pitcher of water and poured a glass for Taylor, helping her to sit up and drink it as well. Taylor drank some and then rubbed her eyes with her hands.

“Go back to bed sweetie. I will be here when you wake up.” Lauren said tucking Taylor in.

“Lauren. I need sweets.” Lauren looked around the room but didn’t see it.

“Alright I will try and find him. Until then will my shirt work?” Lauren asked noticing she had on a tank top and a long sleeve shirt.

“Yeah, because then I can smell like you.” Taylor said reaching for the shirt.

“Alright here you go kiddo.” Lauren scrunched up her shirt so Taylor could hug it like the tiger she wanted. 

“Now try and get some rest.” Lauren said leaning down and kissing Taylor on the forehead.

“I love you Lo.” Taylor said falling asleep.

“I love you too Taytay.” 

Lauren then sent a text to Dinah : Is Taylor’s tiger sweets at your house?

Lauren wasn’t expecting a reply until Dinah got home, so she sat down in the recliner chair in the room and within seconds was fast asleep.

~~~~~~

Lauren woke up the next morning with a blanket laying across her. One that she hadn’t put on herself. When she looked around the room she noticed Camila in the other chair reading a book. Lauren stood up and stretched relieving her aching body from sleeping in the chair. Camila noticed her finally awake.

“Hey there sleepy head.” Camila said setting her book down and looking Lauren up and down but mostly focusing on the abs that Lauren’s shirt was showing.

“Lolo!” Taylor said excitedly from the bed.

“Hey sweetie. How are you feeling?” Lauren said walking to her sister.

“It still hurts and they said I’m suppose to stay still like sleeping beauty.” Taylor laughed.

“Is it a bad hurt?” Lauren asked sitting besides Taylor on her bed.

“It feels like....” Taylor stopped and turned toward Camila and then looked back to Lauren. 

Lauren just nodded for Taylor to keep going. “Like when I get hit on the butt.” Taylor said looking down at the sheets.

Lauren knew exactly what Taylor was meaning and went and pressed the nurses call button.

“Well good morning Taylor! How are you feeling?” The nurse asked walking to Taylors charts to look things over.

“Um...” Taylor didn’t really know what to say.

“Taylor was just telling me that she was uncomfortable and in some pain. Is there anything that she can take right now?” Lauren asked.

“Well Taylor. I need you to tell me where it hurts and how much.” The nurse set everything back in it’s place and walked up to Taylor’s bed with a reassuring smile.

“It hurts where the bandage is. My head hurts some too.” Taylor finally spoke up.

“Can you tell me about how hard it hurts. Like one being just there to ten being let’s say hit in the head with a dodge ball.” The nurse said and Taylor laughed.

“It is in between those two, like I got hit with a soft dodge ball but in my stomach not my head.” Taylor said hoping the nurse understood her.

Lauren and Camila laughed lightly. “Okay sweetie. I’m going to go and get you some tylenol. I’ll be right back.” The nurse said with a smile and left.

“Taytay you’re a goofball.” Lauren said still laughing in her chair. 

“I am not Lolo.” Taylor pouted.

“Oh no not the pouty lip.” Lauren said sarcastically trying not to laugh harder than what she was.

“I can pout all I want and you have to do what I say because I’m hurt right now.” Taylor said with that Jauregui smirk.

Camila just sat back and laughed at the interaction between the two Jauregui’s and was loving every minute of it.

“You put the smirk away right now you little troublemaker.” Lauren teased and sent a smirk right back at her.

“Well it is really nice to see she is smiling and getting along. If she not in too much pain later I think that we can send her home. Taylor will have restrictions but I think you would be more than able to look after her.” The nurse said walking in and giving Taylor some pills to take.

“I just need your dad to come back and sign the paperwork so she can be dismissed.” The nurse added on and Camila noticed both girls tense up changing the mood in the room.

“Yeah. Sure, no problem. Will do.” Lauren said trying to ease her mind and trying to think how she could get her dad to the hospital without actually talking to him.

“Lolo. I’m tired.” Taylor said with a little yawn.

“That’s fine sweetie go to sleep. I may be gone when you wake up but I’ll be back as soon as I can okay. Want me to call Dinah to sit with you while I’m gone?” Lauren asked as she tucked Taylor back in.

“Yes please. Will you see if she has sweets?” Taylor asked trying not to fall asleep yet.

“Yeah I’ll make her bring him. Now go to sleep I’ll see you in a little bit.” Lauren kissed Taylor’s head and turned to Camila.

“Want to get out of her for a bit?” Lauren said more as a statement than a question.

Nothing was said as Camila grabbed her things and followed after Lauren. Camila grabbed Lauren’s hand as they made their way to the elevator just squeezing it every so often to let Lauren know that she was there. Camila wanted to be there for Lauren even though she still wasn’t sure exactly where they were with everything. Camila still wanted Lauren to know that she wasn’t going anywhere. So Camila just held fast waiting for Lauren, like she knew she always would.

Lauren knew that this was going to be her breaking point. Talking to her dad about something that he should have been there for anyways. Lauren hated him most days yet she still had to rely on him when it came down to matters such as this. Damn how she wished her older sister was here right now. Sierra surely wouldn’t have put up with any of this crap from her dad, or maybe she would be doing exactly what she was doing and keeping it all to herself. Lauren was good at hiding the anger inside of herself. Lauren also knew that one of these days it was not going to be a pretty sight when she finally let it all go.

Camila waited till they were in the elevator alone and then just wrapped her arms around Lauren and hugged her. Lauren melted into the embrace and felt a few tears wanting to come out but she held them back. Lauren instead let out a small laugh and was soon smiling. Camila backed away from Lauren and just stared at the girl curiously.

“Why are you laughing like that?” Camila asked as she couldn’t help but smile at the way Lauren was trying to hold back her laughter.

“Just let it out Lauren. It’s just you and me in here.” Camila leaned against the far wall as Lauren went ahead and just broke down laughing not caring that the tears were now falling.

Lauren cried until the elevator was on their stop. Lauren got up and wiped her eyes and without a word said grabbed Camila’s hand and lead them out into the parking lot to her car.

“So want to talk about it?” Camila said as they got closer to the car.

“I don’t even know how to explain it truthfully.” Lauren found her keys in her pocket a pressed the button to unlock the doors.

“It’s just...I mean...I hate him so much. Yet here I am having to go to him to come here and sign papers so that Taylor can go home. Who’s dad does that? Who’s dad goes home knowing that their baby girl is in a hospital bed in pain? I just can’t wrap my head around that. If my mom was here none of this would be happening. Maybe then my sister wouldn’t have went so fucking far away from us. Maybe she would actually be here to help me deal with this shit. Maybe if she actually cared. I don’t even understand anything anymore. Let alone the fact that you some how care about me. I’m fucking broken Camila!! For some reason though you are standing in front of me wanting something from me that I’m not sure I will ever be able to give to anyone.” Lauren said with all honesty.

Camila took a second to comprehend everything Lauren just said. Camila never let go of Lauren’s hand though and just held tighter as the girl ranted on.

“Camila why do you insist on being a part of my life? What do I have to offer you? I have such a fucked up life that there is no way that this can be what you want out of life. Look at it. My moms dead, my sister ran away, I’m basically raising two kids by myself, I’m probably never going to get a scholarship and even if I did I couldn’t take it because I can’t leave them with him. I would never forgive myself if something happened to them.” Lauren couldn’t stop the tears from running down her face.

“Camila I want to be that person for you. I want to be the one that makes you smile. I want to make you mine. But I can’t ask you to come into this madness that is my life. I would never forgive myself if my dad ever did something to you like he has and is still doing to me. Camila I won’t let you get hurt by my life.” 

Lauren tried to pull her hand out of Camila’s but Camila held strong. “I don’t care,” was all Camila said.

Lauren pulled her eyes back up to Camila’s and got sucked in by the love and compassion that she was sending at Lauren.

“I don’t care. I am not going anywhere. I am here for you. I am not leaving you. Too many people have and I refuse to be another one. I want to be that person you can run to if you need help. I’m not scared of your dad. Yeah maybe I should be but Lauren I would fight him off a thousand times if it meant that I still got to hold you in my arms. So you want to try and push me away. Go ahead try it. I will fight for you until you get tired of pushing and accept that I’m stuck in your life. I want to be yours too.” Camila said and grabbed Lauren’s other hand and pulled her closer. 

Camila pulled Lauren closer then placed Lauren’s hands on her hips and rested hers around Lauren’s neck. “I am fine with helping you work through your demons. I don’t know how many times I have to help you back up. I will be here for you. Lauren I want you to be my girlfriend. I’m tired of this kind of back and forth stuff. I want everyone to know that you are mine. The girls already know what is going on, I mean their not stupid. So stop trying to push me away I’m not going anywhere. I don’t care about the people that have walked away from you. Or the people that don’t know what they are missing by not being something in your life. I’m. Not. Going. Anywhere.” Camila emphasized her last words to let Lauren know she was serious.

Lauren softened some and relaxed into Camila’s touch. “Thank you Camila. I guess I would be okay with having someone in my corner. So yeah I’ll be your girlfriend.” Lauren said and leaned the short distance and kissed the girl.

When Lauren pulled back she waited for Camila to open her eyes. “I just really hope dad doesn’t hit me when I got to tell him he has to sign the paperwork for Taylor to get out.”

Lauren watched as Camila’s eyes got wide as saucers and an audible gasp was heard from behind Lauren’s back. Lauren just sank her head into Camila’s shoulders and said. 

“Who the hell is behind me now?” 

Camila couldn’t bring herself to say anything, but knew that this was possibly not going to end well for her. The look in those eyes was enough to break Camila in an instance and Camila was crying. Camila knew how she felt about these things and was disappointed in herself that this was how she found out. Never in a million years did Camila think she would find out like this. Camila knew she was in deep trouble.

Lauren noticed Camila had tensed up and was starting to cry. Lauren lifted her head and pulled Camila’s eyes to her own.

“It’s fine. It’s nothing I can’t handle.” Lauren pecked Camila on the lips and then turned around and came face to face with the one person she knew she didn’t have a fighting chance against.


	9. Chapter 9

Lauren didn’t know what to do. Now that her secret was out, to the one person that meant the most to Camila. What was she even doing here? Why right here? Right now? Lauren knew that life as she knew it was about to change.

“Hey Mrs. Cabello.” Lauren said looking to the ground and trying hard not to let the tears fall.

Sinu took a second to one register what she had just heard, and two to take in that her daughter was in love with said hurting girl and would wait forever. Sinu was conflicted between smiling for the happiness of her daughter and the pain of her daughters girlfriend. Sinu wasn’t sure if Lauren was a hugger or not so she just walked to the girl and embraced her. Sinu felt Lauren tense but then she started to relax and again Lauren broke down. For some reason she just couldn’t hold herself back when it came to the Cabello’s.

As Lauren continued to hug and cry into Sinu’s shoulder Camila walked over and started to rub Lauren’s back. Sinu pulled Camila into the hug too. When Lauren stopped crying Sinu let both of the girls go. Sinu watched as Camila grabbed Lauren’s face and made the taller girl look at her as Camila wiped the left over tears away. 

Lauren stared back into Camila’s eyes and lost herself for a moment in the love that she found. Lauren never wanted to look away but Sinu clearing her throat broke both girls out of their trance. Camila wiped that last of the tears away and pecked Lauren on the lips before she turned with Lauren to face her mother. Camila never once thought of letting Lauren’s hand go.

“Lauren, I’m sorry that this is how I am hearing about your problem. I can tell that you are someone that likes their personal life to stay private. So even though you probably aren’t ready to talk about this. I think that we do need to talk.” Sinu said with sincerity.

Lauren studying Sinu for a minute, but in all reality she knew that she was going to talk to her. “Yeah...okay. Can we go to your house? I don’t need any more surprises.” Lauren said with a small smile.

Sinu was glad Lauren still had her sense of humor about her. “Yeah I will meet you girls there. See you in a few.” Sinu said as she turned to walk back to her car leaving the two girls deciding on what to do.

Camila squeezed Lauren’s hand as her mom walked away from them. Then Camila broke.

“I’m so...sorry...Lo. I didn’t see her until it was too late.” Camila said while crying. “Please don’t hate me.”

It was Lauren’s turn to console Camila. Lauren automatically wrapped Camila up in her arms. “I don’t think I could ever hate you.” Lauren said with as much compassion as she could at the moment.

“Don’t worry about your mom overhearing.” Lauren said and Camila looked up stunned at what Lauren said. “Maybe it is about time that I got this all figured out. Maybe this is for the best.” 

Lauren stared off into the distance as Camila comprehended what Lauren had just said. “Do you really mean that Lo? You are ready for your whole world to be turned upside down. I mean a lot of things could go wrong right now.” Camila asked.

“I think that I do. I can’t keep going on like this Camila. It’s breaking me.” Lauren said still not looking at Camila.

Camila leaned back further from Lauren and held Lauren’s chin in her hand turning Lauren toward herself. “I understand. I’m here for you no matter what. Just do what you think is best. I am in your corner babe.” 

Lauren relaxed a bit at the words Camila said. “Thank you. That means a lot.” To Lauren it really did. Maybe she could get use to someone being there for her. “Now let’s go before your mom thinks we ran away.”

~~~~~~~

Dinah walked into the hospital room with Chris in tow and Sweets the tiger tucked under her arm. Dinah walked in and Taylor was sound asleep still. Dinah walked up to the bed and tucked Sweets under Taylor’s arm and the little girl instantly latched onto it and pulled it close. Dinah just smiled and made herself comfortable in one of the big chairs.

“Chris might as well take a seat we might be here for a little while.” Dinah said as Chris was looking out of the window.

“Dinah?” 

“Yeah kiddo?” Dinah answered preoccupied with her phone.

“I’m scared.” That made Dinah sit up and pay attention.

“Of what C?” Dinah asked walking over to Chris and placing her arm around his shoulders, noticing for the first time that he flinched at her touch.

“I’m afraid of what’s going to happen to Lauren. I don’t want her to get hurt anymore. It makes me so mad!” Chris said through clenched teeth and balling his little hands into fists. 

“Sometimes I just want to jump in but I promised Lauren that I would protect Taylor.” Chris turned and looked up to Dinah.

“Whose suppose to protect Lauren though?” Chris looked at Dinah through watery eyes.

Dinah didn’t know what to do at the moment and just wrapped Chris up in the biggest loving hug that she could muster. Dinah had tears in her eyes as well. What could have set this kind of thinking off? Who was hurting her babies? What other secrets was Lauren keeping from her? First the undercover work and now someone was hurting her. Maybe that explained why Lauren was always grumpy some days. Maybe that explained why she hated people touching her. Dinah let the tears fall as she thought of just how she could talk to Lauren without pushing the girl away. Maybe she could go to Camila and see if she knew anything or would be willing to poke around. Dinah just sat and held Chris in her arms until they were both asleep in the chair next to the window.

~~~~~~

Lauren pulled up to Camila’s house and debated whether or not she should just let Camila out and then run away like she has always done. Lauren dropped that thought as soon as Camila grabbed her hand and gave it a squeeze.

“I’m right here Lauren. I’m not going anywhere.” Camila said reassuringly.

Lauren sighed undid her buckle and went around to Camila’s side of the car and leaned against it. Lost in her thoughts Lauren crossed her arms and just stared at the house in front of her. Lauren thought of what it might have been like to still have her mom with her. What would it be like to have a home to go home to. What would it be like to want to sleep in your own bed. What it would be like to hear someone say they love you everyday. Lauren missed that the most. Lauren missed feeling loved unconditionally. 

Camila watched as thoughts ran through Lauren’s head. Camila could see a glimmer of hope that she wished she could fix. Camila saw the sadness, the worry, the....wanting. Of what she wasn’t sure but Camila wanted to help Lauren find it. Camila wanted to know what was going through Lauren’s head. Camila grabbed Lauren’s hand and interlocked their fingers.

“Hey beautiful. What cha thinkin bout?” Camila said with a small smile.

Lauren took a second to recollect her thoughts. “Just what if’s.” Lauren said casting her eyes down to the ground.

Camila lifted her chin up so she could look into the eyes that she loved to irritate on the court. “It’s alright to think about the what if’s. It’s not okay to let those what if’s consume you. Remember that the past is there for a reason. The past is what makes us the strong, determined, beautiful people that we are today.” 

Camila didn’t wait for Lauren to respond and pecked her on the lips and then turned toward the house almost dreading what was to come of this talk.

Lauren let Camila pull her to the house trying her hardest to not fight it and run.

~~~~~~

Lauren was ringing her hands together on the couch trying to find the right words to start the conversation. Lauren had fought for so long for no one to find out that she just didn’t have a clue on how to start. Camila rubbed patterns on Lauren’s back keeping the older girl calm.

“Lauren.” Lauren looked up to Sinu to let her know she was listening then immediately dropped her head again as she kept talking.

“Again I’m sorry this is how I found out. It should have been your choice. Although I do wish you would have said something earlier. I do know the hardships of finding that person to trust though. I’m not mad at either one of you for not telling me.” Camila then turned towards her mom.

“I understand Camila that you believed Lauren needed that trust in someone. So now Camila quit worrying that I am mad at you.” Camila smiled at her mom and shook her head.

“Now Lauren just start with whatever it is you want to say about the topic. Talk about how it all started. Talk about the most recent one. Scream if it makes you feel better. Please though just tell me what happened.” Sinu said with a doctors tone of I’m not judging you by anything you say from here on out.

Lauren heard the voice change from Sinu and instinctively wanted to crawl up into a ball and not do anything. Lauren knew that she needed to talk though. Lauren knew that this time was coming and she might as well get it over with.

“I....I....I just want him to love me again.” Was all Lauren could get out before she was bringing her hands to her face and breaking down in tears.

Camila instinctively wrapped Lauren up into a hug and let the girl cry into her shoulder. Camila didn’t know if this would be the right thing or not to do but started to text Dinah as Lauren cried.

To DJ : Will you get your mom to get Lauren’s dad to sign the papers for Taylor to go home and then take them home with you?

From DJ : Yeah I can get her to do that. What’s going on? Is Lauren okay?

To DJ : Yes and no. Lauren is fine physically but everything in the last day is really taking and affect on her. So please don’t worry to much and I promise to keep you informed.

From DJ : Okay. Umm...can me and you talk later too. Chris said something to me and I wanted to run it past you.

To DJ : yeah sure ummm i gots to go ttyl thanks 

Camila was still rubbing Lauren’s back and trying to let Lauren know that she was there. When Lauren finally calmed down after a minute she pulled back a little ways from Camila.

“Why the hell am I always crying in front of you?” Lauren said more of a statement to herself than an actually question.

Camila didn’t say anything and just wiped the tears from Lauren’s face and kissed her on the forehead. Sinu watched the interaction with a smile on her face and wondered if they knew yet. Wondered if they were ready for it.

“Thanks for being here Camz.” Lauren said pulling all the way back and sitting up again.

“Always Lo, always.” Camila said taking Lauren’s hand again but never taking her eyes off the girl.

“You okay to go on?” Sinu asked.

“Yeah but I think I need someone else here too. They need to hear this and help me to decide what to do.” Lauren said taking out her phone and sending a quick text along with Camila’s address.

Sinu decided to get up and make some snacks when the girls said they were hungry. The girls were helping and eating all the snacks as Sinu made them. Laughing and carrying on like the ten minutes before hadn’t happened. Lauren knew they were playing along and giving her a nice distraction but when she heard the doorbell rang her smile fell from her face. Lauren knew that everything was going to get serious now.

“Come on girls. Bring those in the living room will you.” Sinu said as she walked to get the door.

Camila and Lauren brought the snacks and drinks into the living room and sat down on the couch.

“Hey Lauren. Is everything okay?” Heather asked as she walked into the living room behind Sinu. 

Camila looked back and forth between Lauren and Heather. Was Lauren actually ready to take this step with her dad. Had Lauren actually thought about this? Camila just shook her head to herself, of course Lauren has thought about this. Lauren has been dealing with this for awhile now. Of course she knows what is going to happen if she talks to an officer about it.

“Um take a seat. You have the rest of the afternoon free right?” Lauren asked, looking at Camila and wondering what she was thinking about.

Heather looked at the girl with curious eyes. “Yeah you know I’m free on Sundays.”

“Okay will you asked me the night that Jacks got pulled in if there was ever anything I needed to talk about to let you know. Well I think you need to know, and I guess I need to know what to do after I tell you.” Lauren said trying to look at Heather but again playing with her hands.

“Alright well tell me what is going on.” Heather said sitting back and waiting for Lauren to start.

“I’m pretty sure everyone knows that my mom died eight years ago when I was eleven. It started slowly. I mean at first it was just a lot of angry yelling and crying and then more crying and then more yelling. I guess at first he knew that all of us were hurting too. After Sierra left though it was like everything fell apart. I was fourteen then.” 

Lauren took a deep breathe as Camila took her hand and gave it a squeeze.

“Everything from that day forward I have hidden from everyone. I never thought that anyone needed to know. It is something that has been a routine for me now. To just stay away from my house as much as I can. On nights that we have to stay there Taylor and Chris sleep and I sit up watching the door listening in the silence for his footsteps. His...heavy....scraping footsteps. Some nights there is nothing it is just quiet and all I hear is the front door shut and the t.v. turn on. Almost like he doesn’t remember that he has kids. Other nights I’m glad the kids are asleep. I’m glad they don’t hear what he says from outside the door. Those kids should never hear what he has to say.”

Camila scooted closer and wrapped one arm around Lauren rubbing her back, just trying to give the girl some comfort and reassurance.

“I never asked to be the strong one. I never asked to hide my brother and sister to know that they were safe in the one place that we have always been told is ‘your safe place’. I would never let either one of them get hurt again though. That was my vow when I was late and Chris got hit. I will never forgive myself for that night. I was stupid that night and I will never make that mistake again.” Lauren looked around the room trying to find something to focus on when she caught sight of Camila rubbing patterns on her palm.

“So Sinu. Yeah those were beer bottle shards in my back that you pulled out. I was stupid for not fixing dinner on time that night. That was what I got for protecting Chris and Taylor. I turned my back to make sure that nothing hit them. I would never forgive myself if something truly did happen to them.” Lauren could feel herself tearing up and was trying to will them away. 

“The thing is. I never thought it was something that you told anyone. I always thought this is what happened. I never thought to tell someone because I was embarrassed. Truthfully I wouldn’t be telling you right now except for Sinu overheard us talking. I mean all I want is my papa back. I just want Chris and Taylor to know him like I did when I was there age. I don’t think they ever even seen him smile. They never felt the love they were suppose too. I want him to love me again. I want him to remember that we lost her too. That we have to live everyday without her too. I want Chris and Taylor to know what a loving home is like. Not one that you cower in ever corner and hide as soon as you get there. I just want him to love us again.” 

Lauren was done and brought her hands up to her face and just let the tears fall. There was no loud sobbing or balling, it was just silent tears that she couldn’t hold in anymore. Silent tears that she needed to shed.

Camila wrapped Lauren up in her arms as soon as she saw the first tear. Camila hated that Lauren felt this way. Camila was angry and wanted to give Lauren’s dad a piece of her mind. Camila didn’t understand how he could hate someone as beautiful inside and out as Lauren was. Camila just wanted to know what she needed to do to make the crying girl in her arms happy again. That was all Camila ever wanted for Lauren. 

Sinu and Heather quietly talked to each other as Camila comforted Lauren.

“You know she will have to come down and give a statement officially if she wants me to do something about this right?” Heather said.

“Yes. I just don’t know if she will ever talk about it again.” Sinu said.

“Well you know as well as I do what might happen if she doesn’t. I also think she knows what will happen too. Which is why she choose to talk here and not down at the station. Lauren knows the procedures and protocols. So until she is truly ready to turn him in there is really nothing that I can do except advise her to make a statement.” Heather said.

“Well Heather I really think we need to let her decide on her own but we also need to give her a little push. I mean we can’t let those kids stay there forever. They need a safe place to be. I am willing to let them stay here so they don’t need to be separated. I already have a license and everything from my job.” Sinu said offering up her home if need be.

“Well that part is settled then. Now to just see if she will do it.” Heather and Sinu shared a look of hope. “Hey Lauren?”

Camila was still slowly rubbing Lauren’s back trying to calm the girl down. Slowly but surely Lauren was starting to settle down and taking regular breathes. Camila could hear the hushed voices behind her but wasn’t listening to them as she wanted to make sure that Lauren was okay.

“Hey. I’m here Lo. I’ll always be here.” Camila said to Lauren so only she could hear.

“Are you sure that is what you want?” Lauren whispered out.

“Are you kidding me. There is nowhere else I would rather be.” Camila said slowly stroking Lauren’s hair and pulling her closer.

“I mean it Camila. I have so much bad shit going on in my life are you sure that this is where you want to be?” Lauren asked again.

“Well think of it this way then. All that bad shit brought you to me and I wouldn’t change that for anything. Maybe I can be the good that evens out all that bad. I mean if you want me to?” Camila said.

Lauren had to pull back and look into Camila’s eyes. Lauren saw all that she needed to see. “Yeah I guess that I could let you. Plus it will be nice to have someone on my side when the girls start teasing you and I about seeing each other.” Lauren showed a small smile.

“Then it’s settled then. I’m not going anywhere and we will shout our love from the rooftops so that everyone can hear.” Camila said a little too loudly and threw her hands in the air in excitement.

Lauren laughed at Camila’s antics. Camila was proud of herself for making Lauren smile and she hoped that she could keep doing it for a long time. 

“Hey, Lauren?” They both heard Heather say.

“Yeah?”

“Do you want to do this officially?” Heather asked.

“I don’t know. I want to because I know that this has to stop. I can’t keep being scared to go home. He’s my dad though. I don’t know.” Lauren lost her smile and went back to really thinking about what she should do.

“Lauren have you ever thought about calling your sister and seeing what she thought of all of this?” Sinu asked.

“NO!” Lauren rushed out. “Sorry no I can’t call her she is almost done with her degree and is graduating this semester. I can’t put this burden on her.” Lauren said as Sinu looked at her like she was the bravest person in the world right now.

“You know that you are one of the bravest people I have ever known? Lauren no eighteen year old should have to go through what you have gone through in you life. Now I understand why doing these undercover things was something you looked forward too. You got to forget the life that you are in for a little while.” Heather said as Lauren gave her a small nod.

“I know what it is like to want to run away from everything that reminds you of your normal life. I get that. I wanted to run away too when I was younger. Not being accepted for who you are is always the worst feeling in the world.” Lauren dropped her head knowing exactly what she was talking about.

“Now you don’t have to do this but this is my thoughts on the situation. You need to make an official statement. I know that you are fighting not to because like you said he’s your father and you still love him no matter what. Think of your siblings though. What happens if you get hurt and can’t be there for them?” Lauren seemed to sink her head ever further. “I know this is hard. I know you are going to feel like it is wrong. I need you to understand though, this is not the end. As being his first time offense, he will go to rehab most likely because it sounds like most of it is alcohol related. He will serve his time after that though. Lauren you have to realize that you have people that love you around.” Heather said and then motioned to Camila and Sinu.

“Sinu has already told me that you and the kids can stay here, as she is already certified to keep you also.” Lauren looked up at Sinu at that, and the older woman nodded her head. “The choice is still up to you, but I know that you will do the right thing for everyone. So I will give you a few days to think about it. Call me on Saturday night and tell me what you decide, okay?” Heather said as she gathered her things and made her way to leave.

Lauren spoke up before Heather was out of the living room. “Heather!” Heather turned around. “Thank you. You have always been there for me. So thanks.” 

Heather noticed the sincere smile on her face. “I will be there whenever I can. I hope that you always remember that Lauren.” With that Heather was out the door and on her way. Hoping that when Saturday night came she got a phone call.

“Alright you two. I’ve got some errands to run. So Lauren go make sure that Taylor is okay and Camila I will see you tonight.” Sinu said giving Camila a serious look. Camila instantly knew that she meant just her and that she better be on time.

“Alright mama. See you tonight. Come on Lauren let’s go see Taylor.” Camila said as the two got up and made their way out of the house. 

~~~~~

“MICHAEL JAUREGUI OPEN THIS DOOR RIGHT NOW!!!!” Milika yelled while pounding on his front door.

After hearing a table crash and and some stumbling the door flew open. Mike just looked up to his wife’s best friend and made no move to let her in or to say anything to her.

“You need to get your ass down to the hospital and sign your youngest out. Shape up Mike this is getting ridiculous.” Milika said and waited for a response that never came.

“Mike get in the damn car so you can sign her out and I can take her home.” 

Mike simply did as she said and went with her to the hospital. Neither talked on the way there or on the way back. Milika knew she needed to do something for those kids but the only thing she thought of was getting Sierra back into town to see if she could help. Milika made a mental note to do that later.

~~~~

“Hey mom, are we going home now?” Dinah asked when her mom walked in.

“Yeah lets go kids.” None of them even asked they just got ready and helped Taylor down to the car.

“Is there football practice tonight?” Chris asked.

“No sweetie. Well yes too in a way you kids always start a game. We are just all going to hang out at the house and have a cook out. Sound good?” Milika asked.

“YES!!! I love it when we cook out. The food is so good.” Chris cheered and got excited from the back seat.

Taylor looked a little sad knowing that she couldn’t take in all the festivities of a cook out at the Hansen house. Milika noticed. “Don’t worry Taylor. I bought plenty of yogurt and ice cream.”

Taylor’s eyes lit up about being able to eat all the ice cream she wanted. “Thank you aunt Milika.” 

“Anytime sweetheart.” 

To Mila : We have T heading home to my house now.

From Mila : Alright meet you there in a lil while

They got to the house. Taylor was settled in for the night and the preparations got started.

“Chris honey what's wrong?" Milika asked as she started chopping up some vegetables.

“Just thinking.” Chris said.

“About what?”

“What’s going to happen when we have to go home for a night.” Chris said with a shrug and started placing the chopped vegetables in the bowls like he did every time he helped.

“What do you mean?” Milika was now very interested in what the boy was about to say.

“I’m just scared for Lauren that’s all.” Chris said.

“What are you scared about?” Milika really wanted to know now.

“Well I can’t tell you exactly. Lauren said we’re not allowed to talk about it.” Chris kept placing vegetables in the bowls. 

Milika stopped cutting the food and turned Chris toward her by his shoulders. “Chris please tell me what is going on. I promise to keep it a secret.” Milika crossed her heart with her hand.

“Lauren always gets hurt when he’s mad. I always hide with Taylor in the bathroom. Lauren is always crying though and no one is allowed piggy back rides anymore. I don’t like it when Lauren cries. Lauren is so strong and brave.” Chris said like he has just told the whole story without missing a detail.

“Chris who hits Lauren?”

Chris looks around the kitchen making sure no one is in there with them. “Daddy does.” Milika tries her hardest to hide the shocked expression on her face. 

“Chris why don’t you go play with the boys.” Milika strangled out as she tried to hide the tears she knew she had. 

“Okay.” Chris said as he slipped out the back door and started playing in the football game.

Milika couldn’t stop the tears once Chris was out of the room and just wondered why Lauren thought she had to keep it a secret. Milika was going to talk to Lauren as soon as she showed up no matter what. Lauren needed to know that she would help. That they could just stay with her and that would be the end of it. Milika needed to know that Lauren was actually okay. Milika wanted Lauren to know that she was still loved and that there was nothing wrong with her.

~~~~

The loud and festive music was the first give away as Lauren drove down the street that tonight was going to be a party even if she didn’t want one. Second was the heavenly smell of grills lit and food cooking. Anyone who drove down their street was sure to have their mouth watering as they drove by. 

Lauren parked the car down the street and Camila grabbed her hand as they walked down the street towards Dinah’s house. Lauren froze when she got closer to the house and Milika was sitting on the front porch. Milika only did that when one of the kids was in trouble and she wanted to talk to them. Lauren hesitantly walked further when Camila kept walking and tugged her along. Lauren pulled Camila back when Milika stood up. That is when Lauren knew it was her that was in trouble.

“Lauren are you alright?” Camila asked as she got yanked backwards.

“Um...yeah babe. Just pretty sure Milika wants to talk to me about something. So you are not allowed to leave my side. To be my buffer.” Lauren said with pleading eyes to Camila.

”Okay I‘ll go with it.” Camila said holding Lauren‘s hand tighter and giving her a quick peck on the cheek.

“Hey Lauren sweetie, let’s go for a walk.” Milika said.

“Okay.” Lauren said as she followed after Milika with Camila.

“Um just you Lauren I need to talk to you about something.” 

“Camila’s fine. She’s actually been the only one holding me together for a long time.” Lauren said like it was everything and to her it was.

Camila just smiled and squeezed tighter on Lauren’s hand.

“Does she know Lauren?” They way Milika said it had Lauren mis-stepping for a second.

“Um know what?”

“For one Lauren you’re wearing a tank top and I can see some of them, and two Chris might have said something to me because I made him. I just need to know if it’s true.” Milika stopped the two girls and was looking into Lauren’s eyes to try and see the truth.

When Lauren refused to make eye contact, Milika knew that it was true. Milika’s heart broke as she grabbed Lauren and just hugged her as fresh tears started to fall. Lauren held on to Milika again loving the fact that an adult was hugging her again, yet hating the reason behind it. Milika was the one to pull back first. 

“Why...why didn’t you ever tell me? Lauren why?” Milika wiped the tears from her face.

“I didn’t want to burden you. I also know what happens to kids in the system. I can’t lose them they are all I have left. They are my everything. I was embarrassed too.” Lauren said.

“We already talked to my mom and Heather. What else is their for Lauren to do?” Camila asked.

“Well I don’t know but you three kids are more than welcome to stay with me and the kids. We couldn’t imagine life without you. So Lauren what are you going to do?” Milika asked letting go of Lauren.

“I don’t know yet.” Lauren looked to the ground. “Heather gave me till next Saturday to figure it out.” 

“Alright well till then just know that you can stay here as long as you want. Taylor is staying here too. I would never make her stay there knowing that something could happen to her.” Milika said as the three of them started walking back toward the house.

“Thank you.” Lauren said as she grabbed Camila’s hand.

“So when were you going to tell me that you finally got a girlfriend Lauren?” Milika said and watched as they both blushed.

“Never seen you smile so much in the last few months. Trust me that is something.” Lauren kept her eyes on the ground knowing that she was blushing a little harder now.

“I love it when she smiles.” Camila added.

“Me too Camila. Me too.” Milika added with a laugh and they all joined the party.

~~~~~~

“Want me to come inside with you?” Lauren asked leaning against her car with her arms around Camila’s waist holding her close.

“No.” Camila said and Lauren raised an eyebrow at her. “I mean yes I do but my mom wants to talk to me about something so, you kind of can’t.” 

“Well shit.” Lauren said snapping her fingers and swinging her arm dramatically.

Camila laughed at her antics. “I will call you as soon as we’re done and maybe you can come back.”

“Okay. That sounds good.” 

“Alright then I’ll see you later.” Camila said but made no action to move.

“I thought you said you had to go?” Lauren teased.

Camila pecked Lauren on the lips and then pulled away from her. “See ya Lo.” 

“Bye Camz.” Lauren waited till she got inside before she rounded the car and was on her way.

Lauren was happy and that was a rare thing and she was going to take it for granted. Forgetting everything that had happened that day Lauren made her way back to the Hansen’s house and enjoyed her time with her friends and family. Not too much later Lauren was done with being surrounded by people. Soon she was on her way to the one place she knew would make her happy.

~~~~~~~~

Lauren couldn’t remember the last time she was in the gym completely by herself and not worrying about Chris and Taylor. As Lauren got lost in the music she thought of what might happen if she were to get a scholarship and get out of this town. Lauren could only hope that everything would settle down by then. At least in her thoughts she could dream about getting out and seeing the world. In reality she knew she wasn’t going anywhere.

Lauren wasn’t going to let the negative thoughts intrude her head though as she ran through some drills and practiced her free throws. Trying to refocus on her technique that she was going to need this weekend in their small tournament. Lauren was pumped to see how the team was going to do now that they were working better as a team.

Lauren lined up a shot and sunk it like she had a hundred other times that night when she heard clapping behind her. Lauren spun around and saw a smiling Camila.

“How’d you get in here?” Lauren asked.

“Well you see coach loses things all the time and so I just made a key so I could find one of the places that I have come to love a little easier.”

“Dang I knew you had it for one of the coaches. Man this is going to be some juicy gossip for the media. Cute innocent looking Camila Cabello gets it on with grimy old coach.” Lauren held her hands up framing them like she was actually reading the headline.

“I can’t play along with that because....eww...just NO!” Camila said getting closer to Lauren. “Two I was talking about you.” 

Lauren gave Camila that ‘are you sure’ look. “Sure yeah nice cover.” Lauren continued to tease her.

Camila and Lauren finally stopped walking as they were right next to each other. Lauren couldn’t take her eyes off of Camila’s. Lauren was lost in the love and wanting that she found there. Camila looked down to Lauren’s lips and then back up to the girl’s eyes. Lauren noticed and since saying they were girlfriends finally kissed Camila on the lips with all the love that she could muster at the moment. Still fighting herself on if she was worth loving. 

Camila wrapped her arms around Lauren’s shoulders and pulled the girl closer by the back of her neck. Camila shivered when Lauren placed her hands on Camila’s hips and gripped tight and pulled her close. As both put what they were really feeling into the kiss Camila pulled back when they needed to breathe.

“I’m not going anywhere Lauren. I promise.” Camila said it with a since of finality that Lauren believed it and kissed the girl again. Finally Lauren felt happy.


	10. Chapter 10

Sirens were going off in the distance as kids started scrambling out of the windows and jumping fences in the backyard to get away. Lauren just chuckled under her breathe as one boy got his sagging pants caught on the fence. Lauren was abruptly pulled away from her amusement as she remembered the predicament that she was in. Lauren tried to loosen the grip on her arm from the man that was dragging her back toward the house. Lauren knew that if they made it inside she was screwed. 

Lauren knew that if she got caught she would go through the system like everyone else and then she would miss tomorrows basketball game where scouts were coming to watch a few of the girls play. Lauren couldn’t risk it so she fought harder, the bigger guy just tightened his grip.

Lauren did the next best thing and took in her surroundings. There was a pool off to her left and a patio like setting off to her right. Lauren needed the guy to go right. So Lauren walked over to the right and then took a running leap to the left. The force of Lauren running and catching the guy off guard made him let go. Lauren effectively landed in the pool and swam to the far side. Lauren was out of the pool just as the bigger guy was at the end coming around as fast as he could to catch her again.

Lauren took off running around the pool again to the patio side throwing everything down behind her as she passed and got to the fence and jumped it with ease. Lauren was really stoked that she had worn skinny jeans and a t-shirt, otherwise she would have been too weighed down to get away from the bigger guy. 

Lauren saw the red and blue lights as soon as she hit pavement on the other side of the fence and knew that the running had just started. As if on cue two officers saw her.

“Hey! Stop! Freeze!” One of the officers yelled but Lauren was already taking off.

“Shit!” Lauren said as she smacked her hand on a brick wall making a sharp turn into the alley. Lauren kept running though because even though the two officers didn’t look like it they could run. Lauren was starting to lose her breathe and knew she needed to lose them soon or she was done for. The wet clothes and shoes were not really helping her right at the moment.

Lauren shed her shirt as she ran and held onto in for dear life as she rounded the next corner and then shot through the park like a rocket knowing it like the back of her hand in the dark. Lauren laughed when she heard one of them run into the hidden slide on the playground. Lauren figured she was in the clear so to make sure she sprinted out of the park and down the alley to the restaurant that she knew would help her out just like he always did.

Lauren saw the screen was open and shot through the door and right into the big brother she never knew she needed.

“Yo Lauren! What the hell kid!” He yelled catching Lauren by the biceps before she fell to the ground.

“Hey Alex! Mind if I pretend to work here for a little while some hogs are right on my back?” Lauren asked as she placed her shirt back on covering her back before he saw. 

“Yeah sure there are some dishes that need caught up on feel free to do them.” Alex laughed as he took another set of dinner plates to the dinning floor. “Oh and why don’t you put on some dry clothes. I have some in my office.”

Lauren just shook her head as she grabbed a bowl full of rice and took her phone apart and placed it in the container and put a lid on it. Lauren hoped that it would dry out soon and made her way to his office to change. Coming back out Lauren noticed the huge stack of dishes and got to work. What would Alex do with out me? Lauren laughed to herself. 

A few hours later the diner was empty and Alex had closed everything up except for the kitchen area. Walking to the kitchen Alex broke Lauren out of the little space case she was having.

“Care to tell me why you are still here and staring off into space; over thinking something?” 

Lauren who was leaned back against the metal table uncrossed her arms and followed Alex out the back door. “It’s nothing. Just trying to figure out my future and I’m failing miserably at it.”

Alex could tell Lauren was really struggling with this and decided that they need to go somewhere and talk. “Come on brah. We are going to the beach cafe and you are telling me everything. I can tell that you need someone that isn’t bias to talk to.”

Lauren was about to spit out an excuse but then just nodded and followed Alex to his car. “Okay.”

The car ride was silent the whole ten minutes it took to drive to the beach at three in the morning. Alex knew Lauren was probably thinking of an excuse to get out of talking but he wasn’t going to fall for it this time. Just as he thought when they got to the restaurant Lauren tried to bail.

“Alex I can’t really stay I have school and a game tomorrow.” Lauren said rubbing the back of her neck nervously.

“I know that but you have no way to get home and Lauren we need to talk. So please just give me like ten minutes. Stop putting that wall up. You do realize I know when you do it.” Lauren looked at him lovingly.

“Yep just because I dated Sierra didn’t mean that she was the only one that I paid attention too. I love all of you like you are my family. Now get your scrawny ass inside this dinner and talk to me.

Lauren just laughed as Alex threw an arm around her and led her inside. “Alright, alright you got me.”

Alex ordered the usual for them as Lauren went and found a booth in the back of the restaurant. Staring out the window at the ocean she never felt Alex come up behind her and set their glasses down. Alex took in the almost desperate look on Lauren’s face. It was almost like she just wanted everything to stop for a while, to just have time to slow down and breathe.

“Hey you okay there?” Alex said softly as to not startle Lauren too much.

Lauren took a second to hear Alex talking to her. “Huh? Oh yeah I’m okay.”

“That was a lie if I ever heard it. Now please Lauren tell me what’s got you thinking so much? Or should I ask whom?” Alex said with a knowing smirk. Just because Sierra needed a little space didn’t mean he didn’t check up on the other Jauregui’s every once in a while.

“Well if you must know her name is Camila and I’m pretty sure I’m falling in love with her. Not just like it’s nice to have a girlfriend but like I can’t stand to not talk to her everyday. I want to make sure that she is safe. I want to know that she is happy. I want her to achieve all the goals she has set for herself. I want her to go places. Yet I also feel like I am holding her back. That my screwed up life is not what anyone should want to jump into. Camila lately has always been there for me, a lot. Hell she even went on a bust with me so that I wouldn’t get called out. It still feels like I am leading her away from her happiness though.” Lauren said with a smile and tears forming in her eyes.

Alex took Lauren’s hand in his own. “Hey there is absolutely nothing wrong with you. You are amazing. You need to remember that. The way that you have stepped up for Taylor and Chris while still getting straight A’s, being captain of an undefeated basketball team, getting scouted for top colleges around that country, and still having time to do a side job here and there. Lauren nothing about you is simple. You lead a very busy, very scheduled life. I wish that there was more that I could do for you. Here is what I think though. Camila I’m pretty sure knows all of this about you. Camila sounds like she is happy to be with you no matter what is going on. It feels like that girl has picked you up and helped you in more ways than one. I have a feeling that if she truly thought you were holding her back that she would tell you and go her own way. I think that she is happy right where she is, with you. Have you talked with her about any of this?” Alex sat back as the waitress placed their food down in front of them.

“Do y’all need anything else tonight?” 

“No we are good thank you ma’am.” Lauren said in her nicest voice.

“Alright I’ll be over at the counter holler if you think of something.” The waitress said as she walked away.

“No I haven’t talked to her because I don’t know what to say. I don’t want it to turn into some big argument. Plus with this game tonight I just wanted everything to go smoothly for a bit. But my thoughts are going everywhere, what I really want is my mom, she would know what to say.” Lauren wiped the tear away as Alex switched sides of the booth and hugged Lauren.

“Shh. Shh. Lauren it’s okay. I can’t say I know what that feels like. Have you tried calling Sierra?” Alex said it and not even a second later Lauren was tensing at the thought.

“No I can’t stop her from her dreams. I want her to get done with school first and then I will talk to her.” Lauren said pulling back from Alex and wiping the tears away.

Alex went back to his side and started eating again. “Lauren you can’t keep doing everything for everyone else. Eventually you are going to have to let people in and let them take care of you. You are one of the strongest eighteen year olds that I have ever met. Still you need to let people in you can’t protect them all. One day; and I truly hope it never comes, you will need saving too. So don’t push anyone away just because you think you aren’t good enough, because trust me, you are.” 

Lauren had a smile on her face for the rest of the diner. “Thanks Alex you somehow always know what I need to hear even though it was no where near what I had actually asked you.”

Alex laughed as they walked back to the car. “Come on tell me where you parked and I will take you to your car.”

~~~~~~

Lauren was on the edge of her seat as Friday was coming to an end. All she wanted to do was get out of the classroom and get on the court. Lauren was proud of herself for getting a free period as her last class. Giving her time to get to the gym and get in her extra practice which the coaches made sure to tell the scouts that inquired about her. 

Camila was anxiously awaiting for the teams game tonight. Camila and Lauren wanted to show the coaches a couple new plays they were working on that showcased some of the other girls talents as well as their own. That and it would throw off the other teams that knew their plays like the back of their hands. 

Lauren made her way to the gym as soon as the bell rang just wanting to be done with teachers and other students for the day. It took Lauren two minutes to change into her practice gear and grab her speakers and ball and was onto the court. To her surprise all the girls were in the gym also.

“What are y’all doing here?” Lauren asked walking up to the girls.

“We thought that maybe we would practice with you today.” Ally said cheerfully setting her stuff down and taking the ball from Lauren.

“Oh yeah?” Lauren asked. “What about all of your classes?” 

“We got passes to miss them.” Dinah said holding up the slips their teachers gave them.

Lauren just laughed and shook her head at the girls antics. “And here I thought that you were suppose to be my good influence.” Lauren walked up to Camila and placed her hands on the girls hips as Dinah and Normani went to join Ally.

“Well everyone needs to break a few rules every now and then.” Camila said placing her arms around Lauren’s neck and pulling her slightly closer.

“Well then maybe I am starting to be a bad influence on you.” Lauren said with a raised eyebrow and a smirk. “Care to join me on the rebellion side of things?”

Camila just shook her head no and pulled Lauren a little closer. Lauren took the hint and gave Camila a quick peck on the lips before she was sprinting away and joining the other girls on the court. Camila turned the music on and joined them as well. Smiling the whole time at how Lauren had changed since their first practice together. When the other girls noticed the interaction between Camila and Lauren the teasing ensued as they messed around running plays and just generally hanging out.

~~~~~~

“How long Mike?!” Milika asked for the umpteenth time in the last hour.

Mike sat taking another drink from his glass varily acknowledging that Milika was even there. “I don’t answer to you.” 

“Sooner or later you will answer to someone.” Milika spit as she got up to leave the bar.

Mike said nothing and just kept watching the baseball game on t.v. and asking for a refill.

Milika knew that she was up against it and even though no one wanted to bring Sierra into the mix she needed to find out what the oldest Jauregui knew. Milika called and left a message for the girl to call her as soon as she had some free time. Milika didn’t know if this was going to be good or bad but she needed to do something.

Milika got in her car, drove home and did everything she could to occupy herself until Sierra called her back. All Milika could think was thank god she had a lot of kids to keep her busy through out the day. Milika really had no idea how anyone could seriously hit some one that they had brought into the world. 

As her thoughts started to get the better of her one of the kids as if on cue started yelling for mommy.

~~~~~

As the sweat ran down her face and she wiped her brow with a team towel Camila finally tuned back in to what her coaches were saying. Something about this game was throwing Camila off and she just couldn’t figure it out. There was just some feeling in the bottom of her stomach that was making her feel nauseas. Camila threw her hand in as the team did their cheer getting back to the game at hand.

“Hey you okay babe?” Lauren asked with her hand on the small of Camila’s back. Truthfully that was the only thing helping Camila right now.

“If I told you it was just because I wanted to kiss you right now would you believe me?” Camila said as she gave her best fake smile.

Lauren looked at Camila with a raised eyebrow and a smirk. “I would kiss you but coach would get pissed and plus the crowd would be frantic. Plus I know you Camz so after the game it’s you and me time okay?”

“Alright. That sounds good thanks Lo.” Camila said with a smile and walked to her position on the floor. 

Lauren tried to take any thoughts except for basketball out of her head. When the inbound pass came from Dinah, Lauren was focused on winning this game and proving that she deserved a scholarship. Even though Lauren desperately wanted it she really wanted all the other girls to get out of here too. Lauren made sure that she did her part and involved all of her teammates too.

The game was hard fought. The other team was full court pressing. Lauren caught the ball got two steps and was double teamed. Lauren passed to Mani. Mani didn’t make it much further until she was doubled, she passed to Camila who got it over the halfway line. 

Lauren was frozen on the other side of half court. There was no way that this was happening. Lauren had made sure that he didn’t know where they were. There was no way that he could have got to Chris and Taylor yet here they were with her dad walking into the game. Camila noticed Lauren wasn’t around them when she got double teamed and had to call another timeout.   
“Lauren? You okay?” Camila stood in front of Lauren trying to get her eyes to focus on her.

“What’s wrong babe?” Camila asked again as Lauren slowly shook her head and came back to her.

“He...he has them.” Lauren said pointing to her dad.

“What? Who are you talking about?” Camila searched where she was pointing and saw Chris and Taylor with Lauren’s dad.

“My dad has Chris and Taylor. That means something happened to Alex. I don’t even know how he found out Alex had them.” Lauren said waving at Taylor when the little girl smiled at her.

“I don’t know if I can do this Camz. What am I suppose to do?” Lauren asked.

“Right now we need to focus on this game. We need you here. Then as soon as the final buzzer goes we go get the kids claiming we want to celebrate with them in the locker room. Then we will go from there. Okay?” Camila said still holding Lauren’s arms.

“Okay. Yeah I think I can do that.” Lauren said as she refocused on the game.

Lauren tried as hard as she could to stay focused, it became harder for her after the third period when her dad and the kids disappeared. Lauren couldn’t spot them anywhere and she was starting to panic. All the girls could tell that she was about to lose it and crazy Lauren on the floor right now was not what she needed.

“Lauren are you okay?” Dinah asked running to her friend that was acting out of character.

“No! I’m not fucking okay! He has them Dinah!” Lauren yelled running her hands through her hair and frantically looking for any sign of them.

“What are you talking about Laur? Who has who?” Dinah wasn’t really sure what Lauren was talking about.

“Lo? Babe? Settle down we will find them. I won’t leave your side until we do. Now what do you want to do?” Camila asked.

Lauren could feel the guilt already coming over her if she let Camila leave with her. So she did what she has always done and threw every wall she had back up.

“You are going to stay here with the team and win the game. You are not going to throw away your opportunity to get a scholarship and get out of here. I won’t let you do it. So finish the game Cabello!” Lauren said with everything she had in her.

“What exactly are you going to do Lo?” Camila asked knowing she was going with Lauren no matter what.

“I have to go find them. I could never live with myself if something happened to them. So please finish the game lead them to victory and I will call you as soon as I find them.” Lauren had already started her way to the locker rooms. All the girls hot on her heels. 

“I’m coming with you Lauren.” Camila said as she too started changing.

“No! You can’t do that!” Lauren said stopping her.

“Yes I can! Lauren you don’t have to do this by yourself anymore. I told you that I wouldn’t leave you and I’m not going too. So deal with it I’m coming with you.” Camila said.

“I can’t let you give up your chance at being scouted though. You can’t throw that away because of me.” Lauren said as she pulled on her jeans.

“Guess what Lauren I could give two shits about getting scouted right now. You need me and that is it. No more arguments I am going with you.” Camila said with a don’t argue with me tone.

“Fine but you three are staying here. All five starters can’t leave right now. So please go out there and win please. I will text y’all as soon as I find the kids and get them someplace safe.” Lauren said.

“Lauren! What the hell is going on? I need to know why you two are freaking out about Chris and Taylor right now!” Dinah said crossing her arms and demanding an answer.

“Fine you want to know whats wrong! Here!” Lauren yelled pulling off her jersey and showing the girls her back.

All three girls gasped at the sight. Lauren could see Ally was starting to cry and the other two weren’t that far behind.

“That Dinah is why I have to find them. I can’t let my dad hit them like he does me. I would never live with myself if that happened. Now please go finish the game and I will text you later.” Lauren said changing into her t-shirt.

Ally was the first to wrap Lauren up in a hug crying the whole time. “Lolo if you need anything else please call me. I’ll be there in a heartbeat. I love you.”

Normani and Dinah joined the hug too encouraging Lauren to do the same for them as well. The girls all pulled away hearing the buzzer for the game to restart. 

“Go win the game for us. Just run the plays like you see them. Be smart about it. You guys got this.” Lauren practically was pushing them out of the locker room.

“You two be safe. Call us with any news.” Mani said as they left the locker room.

Camila couldn’t help it she walked right up to Lauren and kissed her with all the love she had for the girl. Pulling back only because they needed to go. “Come on let’s go find them.” 

~~~~~~~

Everything felt funny almost like every part of her body was covered in cement. The worse part was her throat but she couldn’t get a sound to come out. Eyelids where so heavy there was no way she could get them open. Maybe if she focused everything she had into moving those muscles. Yes! That’s it! Slowly trying to open one eye but just couldn’t get them to open. Lauren could hear a loud beeping going off and wished it would stop it was making her head want to explode. The thoughts raced through her mind to figure something out to let someone know she needed something. Soon enough everything was just too much again and she fell back into the darkness.

Lauren heard muffled talking. Too many people to decipher exactly what was being said. So Lauren decided to focus on her voice again. Lauren said the name of the only person she wanted to see right now. “Ca....”

Lauren couldn’t get anything else out and felt the tears run down her face. Once again Lauren did everything that she could to move or just do anything. It was almost like she was restrained. Lauren tried again and this time but every single emotion she had behind talking.

“CAMZ!” Lauren got it out but it was so raspy and only above a whisper she verily recognized her own voice.

Lauren almost wished she hadn’t said anything as she was soon surrounded by too many people trying to get her to do things she didn’t or thought she couldn’t do at the moment.

“Lauren?” Why doctors always wait for a response is baffling Lauren thought to herself; their just going to introduce themselves and make you do things that hurt at the moment. “I’m doctor Reyes. Can you open your eyes for me?”

Lauren wanted to open her eyes and she tried as hard as she could only getting them open in a squint. Lauren started shaking her head no and felt some more tears fighting their way through.

“No. That is good Lauren.” The doctor said as a nurse started taking Lauren’s blood pressure and messing with some other stuff Lauren couldn’t concentrate on right now. 

“Try again whenever you are ready.” Doctor Reyes said giving Lauren’s right arm a light squeeze. Lauren finally opened her eyes but wished she hadn’t, the lights in the room were blinding so she snapped them shut again.

The doctor noticed the hesitance of Lauren and asked the nurse to dim the lights. “Lauren we turned the lights down. Can you open your eyes for me again?”

Lauren did as she was told. The doctor then checked her eye movement with a small flashlight. She checked all of Lauren’s other vitals as well and the started to explain what was going on.

“Alright Lauren here’s the deal. You have a few cracked ribs on your left side. That is going to make it hurt to breathe, laugh pretty much anything you do for the next few days it’s going to hurt like hell. Now your right wrist is sprained and you have a lot of scrapes and bruises over the rest of your body. We cleaned all of the glass out and stitched you up. All it means is that you need to be careful for the next few weeks and you are going to be in some pain. So if you need anything you need to push this button and a nurse will come see you immediately. Got all of that?” The doctor spilled out, Lauren only catching that she was going to be in a lot of pain and out of basketball for a few weeks. 

Lauren tried opening her eyes again and this time a little wider blinking a few times she took in her surroundings and noticed that only nurses and doctors were in the room. The doctor noticed her searching and moved over to the right a little bit and Lauren saw exactly who she wanted to see.

Lauren broke down in tears at the sight of Camila sleeping while sitting in the middle of a couch with Chris and Taylor sleeping with their heads in her lap. None of them had woken up from all the commotion and she was grateful for that.

“Lauren I know that you want to see them and talk to them, but we need to do a few more tests and then I will wake Camila up for you okay?” The doctor said and Lauren nodded wanting to get the tests done so she could talk to Camila.

“Alright Lauren follow the light with your eyes.” The doctor said and Lauren did as she was told hating the black spots it left in her vision.

“Do you think you can talk?” The nurse asked.

“Wa-wa-water.” Lauren tried and the nurse went to get her a glass.

Lauren gulped down as much water as the nurse would give her as it felt like the desert in her mouth got a much needed monsoon.

“Alright Lauren can you tell me what today is?” 

“Friday the 12th of December.” Lauren said like it was obvious and the doctor took notes.

“Who were you with the last that you can remember?”

“Camila.” Lauren nodded her head her way. “My siblings and...and.......m-m-my dad.” Lauren felt the tears as she tried her hardest to remember exactly what happened Friday night.

“It’s okay Lauren. Do you remember anything that happened Friday night?”

“Don’t really want to. I just can’t. Not yet.” Lauren shut her eyes hard trying to focus on the events of Friday night but just couldn’t get anything except her fear and anger out of her head.

“Hey that is fine Lauren. It’s okay. They will come back to you eventually. It is completely normal for you not to remember right now. That is all that we are going to do for now. Would you like me to wake Camila up?” The doctor assumed from Lauren’s concentration that she didn’t remember anything as Lauren wiped the tears from her eyes and looked over to Camila peacefully sleeping in an awkward position.

Lauren shook her head yes wanting to see the smiling girl she fell in love with. The doctor went over and nudged her lightly not wanting to wake the sleeping kids. Lauren watched as Camila wiped the sleep from her eyes and looked up at the doctor.

“There is someone that wanted to say hello.” Camila’s eyes widen as the doctor pointed to where Lauren was awake in the bed.

Camila slowly got up with a huge smile on her face placing the kids heads down on the couch softly then moving to Lauren’s side wiping the tears away. Lauren couldn’t help her mouth from falling open and the tears the rushed from her eyes.

“No please don’t cry. I hate it when you cry, it makes me think that I broke you. What happened to your face? Are you okay? Does it hurt? I’m going to get him back! Just wait.” Lauren asked as she saw the massive bruise on the left side of Camila’s face. 

Camila wiped the tears answered none of the questions and just kissed Lauren with every feeling that she had at the moment. Lauren was surprised at first but started to kiss Camila back. Lauren heard the doctor excuse himself. Lauren’s hands made it to the back of Camila’s neck pulling the girl closer but as Camila’s hands ran down Lauren’s side she winced. Camila pulled back suddenly getting off of the bed, but not out of arms length. 

“Are you okay? What did I do? Do you need the doctor?” Camila said frantically trying to read Lauren on how bad she was hurt.

“Camila. Camz! I’m okay. I have some cracked ribs. With us kissing and then them getting touched was what made it hurt. So I’m fine please come back over here and hug me.” Lauren said opening up her arms for Camila.

Camila smiled at Lauren and stepped back into her embrace. Camila took in everything about the girl at the moment. Camila felt herself relax, like every care in the world was now gone simply because Lauren was back with her. Camila loved the way Lauren chuckled lightly when Camila didn’t pull away like if she let go Lauren would float away. When Camila did pull back she half sat on the bed and intertwined her fingers with Lauren’s and propped herself up leaning over Lauren with the other.

“Hey.” Lauren said with a smile.

“Hey to you.” Camila smiled back.

“I’m sorry.” Lauren said with a few tears.

“For what Lauren?” Camila asked wiping the tears away with her thumb.

“That he hurt you. I was trying so hard to get to you before he hurt you.” Lauren said stroking her thumb over Camila’s left cheek.

“Babe.” Camila said with a loving tone. “It’s not your fault. I am the one that choose to go in when you told me not to. It will never be your fault. It was all your dad’s doing so never apologize for something that you had no control over.” 

Lauren relaxed a little but still felt guilty that she had gotten Camila hurt. Camila yawned into her shoulder as Lauren did the same a few seconds later.

“Will you sleep with me? I mean....will you...just lay next to me tonight?” Lauren stumbled with her words not wanting Camila to take it the wrong way.

Camila just laughed. “I don’t want to hurt you though.” 

“You won’t if you stay on my right side. Only my left side really hurts.” Lauren said scooting over so Camila would fit.

“Alright. If you get hurt anytime at all you tell me and I will go back to the couch with the kids.” Camila said snuggling down into Lauren’s embrace.

Lauren just smiled and kissed the top of Camila’s head as Camila got comfortable. Soon Camila’s head was on Lauren’s chest and both of their legs were tangled together under the blankets. Camila made sure to drape her hand across Lauren’s stomach but far enough down that she wasn’t touching Lauren’s ribs. Within a few minutes both girls were fast asleep.

~~~~~~~~

Lauren woke up forgetting that she was in the hospital until she tried to move and then grunted in pain. Lauren clutched her ribs as Camila shot up out of the bed and away from Lauren fearing that she had hurt Lauren. 

“Are you okay? What do you need?” Camila asked.

“Nothing Camz. I forgot that I was here. That’s all it was you did nothing. It was my fault.” Lauren said through gritted teeth as Camila pushed the nurses button.

“Is everything okay in here? Lauren are you in pain?” The nurse asked as she walked in and started reading the machines.

“I just moved wrong is all.” Lauren said.

“Are you in pain right now Lauren?” The nurse asked again with a stern look.

“Technically yes. Not sure how much is from me trying to move and what is from the throbbing.” Lauren finally answered the nurse truthfully.

“Alright. Here take these and that should help with the pain.” The nurse handed Lauren two pills to take. 

“If you need anything else Lauren hit the button and we will help you. The doctor should be in around ten to talk to you and possibly let you go today.” The nurse said after she made sure Lauren swallowed the medicine and then she was gone.

Camila walked back over to Lauren and took her hand sitting on the edge of the bed. “Are you really okay?”

Lauren held her tongue not wanting to snip at Camila for just being concerned and choose the words to say next carefully. 

“I hate that question so much.” Lauren watched Camila’s face drop, but squeezed Camila’s hand so she would pay attention to her next words. “Only because I am so use to taking care of everything myself and not use to anyone caring or wanting to make sure that I am in fact okay. I am so used to being the person that makes sure everyone else is good, that I don’t know how to let someone take care of me. So I will warn you now that please don’t take right now to heart Camz. I am going to be cranky and crabby and probably a complete bitch.” 

Camila gave a small laugh. “So yeah right now I am okay. Just try to bear with me through everything though okay?”

Camila kissed Lauren’s forehead. “Yeah don’t worry I’m not going anywhere. I promised I’m not going anywhere.”

Lauren smiled and pulled Camila back into the bed with her feeling drowsy again from the medicine. “Lay with me?” Lauren asked with a yawn.

“Okay.” Camila snuggled back into her pervious position.

Lauren kissed the top of Camila’s head and as she started drifting off to sleep said aloud what she thought was only in her head.

“I love you Camz.”

Camila froze and wasn’t sure what to do. Camila relaxed though when she realized that Lauren was fast asleep. Camila smiled to herself though as thoughts ran through her head. Camila thought of all the reasons that she was holding back from saying the same thing to Lauren and realized that she too was in love with the slightly temporarily broken girl that she was cuddled with.

Camila realized that she was happiest when she was with Lauren. Whether it be sitting on the beach staring into the sunset, hanging out with all the girls and the kids, playing basketball, or even going on a bust with her. Camila was in love with the one and only Lauren Jauregui. Now to find out if Lauren realized that she had said it to her or to just come out and tell Lauren later on.

Either way Camila was over the moon and couldn’t wipe the smile off of her face as she started to fall asleep with Lauren but not before saying. 

“I love you too. Always.”


	11. Chapter 11

Camila went through her normal routine for a game day on a Saturday. Mostly just lounging around. Camila did start making her way out to the beach now usually it was the only place that she could find true peace and quiet. Add in the fact that Lauren was there most of the time too and it just made it that much better.

Camila got to the beach and saw Lauren’s motorcycle there. Camila made her way down to the beach and found Lauren sleeping in their little alcove. Not wanting to wake Lauren knowing that it is not very often she gets a lot of sleep Camila just sat down on the blanket next to her and started doing some of her homework.

Camila noticed Lauren was starting to squirm in her sleep and moved closer to her and started running her fingers through Lauren’s hair. Lauren calmed a little bit so Camila just kept going. Ten minutes later Lauren was shooting up out of her lap wiping the tears from her eyes and trying to remember where she was. 

“Lauren are you okay?” Camila asked worriedly as she went to rub Lauren’s back.

Lauren turned to her and shook her head and let Camila engulf her into a hug. Lauren pulled back after a minute and just stared out into the ocean even as Camila rubbed patterns on her back and gave her the space she needed. Camila was caught off guard when Lauren started talking about her nightmare.

“All I wanted to do that night was go and hang out with Dinah. Dinah had gotten her parents to say yes and I just really wanted to go. Basically everyone else in the class was going too.” Lauren started explaining the events that happened on the tragic night she lost her mother.

“Mom can we go please?” A ten year old Lauren whined wanting to go ice skating with all of her friends.

“Honey what do you think? I mean Sierra is out with her friends, Chris and Taylor are taken care of for the night with Milika and we could make it a date night.” Clara said to Mike more as yeah we are going to do this but let’s entertain this a little while longer.

“I don’t know dear. I mean ice skating, isn’t that a cliche move by this boy.” Mike said not fully understanding the situation.

“Eww!! Daddy no!! Boys are gross and disgusting!! I want to go with Dinah.” Lauren said with hands on her hips and a disgusted look at the mention of boys.

Mike threw his hands up in surrender as Clara laughed next to him. “Alright go get your stuff together and we will all go out.”

“Thank you daddy!!! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!” A very excited Lauren squealed as she ran up the stairs to get her stuff.

“Thank you honey. Now where are you taking me out to eat at?” Clara asked as she gathered her things ready for a date night that she hadn’t had since Taylor was born.

“Let’s just see what is around the rink and make it spontaneous. Shall we?” Mike smiled and kissed Clara. 

“Eww!! Stop that!!” Lauren said to her parents as she came down the stairs ready to go and caught them kissing.

Both of them laughed as they made their way out the door and off the the skating rink not knowing this would be their last happy memory. Lauren never did make it to the skating rink. Everything changed in the blink of an eye. Lauren was in the back listening to the Christmas songs as her mom sang along. Lauren was smiling the whole time. 

Lauren never saw it coming, neither did her mom or dad. Lauren remembers the sound as the glass shattered, the tires squealed, the horn blasted and then nothing but the ringing in her ears. Lauren remembered only wanting to get to her mom but she felt like she had an elephant on her chest and couldn’t find the strength to move. Lauren remembered hearing screaming but not from whom it came. Soon everything around her was black.

The next thing she remembered was the ambulance lights and seeing them drag her mom out of the car. Lauren could still just varily hear the people trying to talk to her. The smell of burning car parts will forever be ingrained into her memory. The blue and red lights everywhere was making it hard for her to focus, but Lauren knew she just wanted to go to her mom. No one around her would let her move though. 

Lauren took the chance when they weren’t looking and hopped off the bed and ran to where her mother was. Lauren got to her mom and just started crying and yelling for her to wake up to just say something. Soon a nurse was picking Lauren up and taking her back to the other ambulance. Lauren losing her grip on the now cold hand of her mothers.

That night the doctors heard Lauren crying well into the night. That was the night that Lauren closed herself off from loving anyone. Lauren felt like her heart had been ripped out of her chest and there was just a wide gaping hole in its place. Lauren changed that night and she didn’t think that anything or anyone would ever change her back.

Lauren finished up telling Camila about her nightmare and Camila couldn’t help but hold her girlfriend in her arms and whisper loving thoughts into her ear.

“It was all my fault.” Lauren whispered out into Camila’s hair as she was being hugged. “It’s all my fault.”

Camila pushed Lauren back holding onto the girls shoulder with one hand and lifting Lauren’s chin to look in her eyes. 

“That was not your fault. Do you hear me? That was not your fault. You know who’s fault it was. The moron who ran into you. The idiot who blew through the red light. This is on him. He is the one that has to deal with taking a life and ruining a family. In absolutely no way is this your fault. So please Lauren forgive yourself for being a ten year old that wanted to go have some fun.” Camila said as a tear escaped and ran down her cheek. Camila understood a little bit now why Lauren did a few of the things she did.

“I’ll try.” Lauren said wiping the tear from Camila’s face. “Sorry I ruined your prep.”

“Never. I think it would have been worse if I wasn’t here. Never apologize for working through your feelings Lauren. You need to feel them. Everyone needs to feel them.” Camila said honestly.

“Thanks Camz.” Lauren said giving the girl a quick peck.

“Hey. Come here.” Camila used one finger in a suggestive way to get Lauren closer. “I want a real kiss from my girlfriend please.”

Lauren raised her eyebrow at Camila and smirked before she leaned in close to Camila’s lips and whispered, “Catch me if you can.” and took off running.

Camila laughed as she got up and chased after Lauren. Hearing Lauren laughing made Camila happy even though she knew Lauren was using it as a defense mechanism. Lauren swooped and swayed down the beach just getting out of Camila’s reach. Eventually both girls got tired and Lauren let Camila catch her, she wasn’t expecting to get tackled though and landed hard on her back. Lauren instantly winced at the impact even after three weeks her ribs still hurt when she got hit hard.

Camila rolled off of Lauren instantly and asked. “Are you okay? I’m sorry. Are you hurt?”

Lauren just kept laughing and then pulled her concerned girlfriend in for a kiss. Camila soon forgot everything that was going on around them as she relaxed into the kiss and let Lauren flip them. As Lauren straddled Camila she let one of her hands play with the hem of Camila’s shirt. When Camila didn’t protest she moved her hand inside of her shirt, slowly yet very effectively moving her hand upwards. 

Lauren was loving the little moans and squeaks that Camila was making under her. As soon as it started though it was over as Lauren and Camila pulled apart as some douche bag boys started hooting and hollering at them. Lauren got up ready to knock their faces together. Camila calmly grabbed her hand and led her away from the open beach and back to their spot.

“Come on Lo. Their not worth it.” Lauren let out a frustrated sigh but went with Camila anyways.

“They would deserve it though.” Lauren hissed.

“Yeah they would but if you get caught you can’t play and the team needs you tonight.” Camila said.

“I know and that is one of the only reasons they don’t have their faces smashed in right now.” Lauren huffed as she walked with Camila back to their spot.

“Camz?” 

“Yeah Lo?”

Lauren wanted nothing more than to say what she had said in the hospital. Lauren wanted to tell the world that she was in love with Camila. Lauren wasn’t sure that she could do it right now though. Lauren wasn’t sure if she would ever be able to do it. Even though she knew that Camila was always going to be the one on the receiving end no matter what.

“Thanks.” Lauren looked down at her feet as she said it.

“Lauren?” Camila lifted Lauren’s chin so she could see her favorite pair of eyes.

“Yeah Camz.”

“Are we ever going to talk about it?” Lauren eyes went wide as saucers and her jaw dropped opened.

“Wh-What are you ta-talking about Camz?” Lauren tried to cover and it made Camila curious of what Lauren was actually thinking.

“Well the night that everything happened.” Camz said knowing that both things she wanted to talk about happened that night.

“Oh, uh, No. I mean I just can’t right now. I will though and you know it will be you that I go to when I do.” Lauren said with a very small smile that Camila only caught because she was staring at Lauren.

~~~~~~~

Lauren was still on the bench as the second period was coming to a close. Both of her coaches didn’t want to take the chance of her getting hurt before they really needed her. Lauren though was pissed all she wanted to do was get out on the floor and get the lead back for her team. For the first time all season that Tigers were losing and it was driving Lauren insane. 

“Camz watch the double!” Lauren yelled from the sidelines jumping out of her seat.

Camila got doubled a second later and tried getting the ball to Ally as the buzzer sounded and half time was upon them.

Lauren grabbed a few water bottles and some towels for the girls as they made their way off the court to the bench. 

“Thanks Lo.” “Thanks L.” Thanks Lauren.” “Thanks babe.” The girls said taking the water and going to the locker room.

“Thanks for the warning babe. I need you out there though. You always seem to see these plays before they are happening. Think we can talk coaches in to letting you play?” Camila said taking the water and wiping her face with the towel as Lauren placed her hand on the small of Camila’s back guiding her to the locker room.

“It would be nice to get out there. For some reason though coaches are against putting me in. It’s literally killing me to sit on the bench watching you guys lose knowing that I could help.” Lauren said truthfully.

Camila and Lauren walked into the locker room to bowed heads and grumpily mumbling coming from all the girls. None of the girls knew what to do right now. They were all so use to be pumped up and winning that losing was a little foreign to them all. Not a single one of the girls liked this feeling.

“Hey! Don’t hang your heads right now! We haven’t lost yet.” All the girls snapped their heads to Lauren knowing that she was not much for giving team speeches.

“I know that you all can win this game. All you have to do is stop playing to their defense. They’re playing a tight zone defense. All you girls have to do is space yourselves out a little more. Stand out of bounds for a second or two if you have to. Make them think that you are not part of the play so they relax a little bit.” Lauren watched as the girls nodded their heads and were following what she was saying. Lauren’s small smile was slowly growing as she caught Camila’s eyes shining with admiration.

“We need you Lauren!” Darcy said from the bench.

“That’s just it you guys don’t need me. I’ve seen y’all practice without me and you were great. You don’t need me to be out there with you all the time. Y’all are amazing athletes. Not going to lie. Yeah I want to be out there, but if coach thinks that I’m not ready yet and that you can do this without me. Then y’all need to do this. You did it the last three weekends without me, and look we are still undefeated. I have faith in y’all to win this game. I know that all of you can give more than what you are giving. I know that y’all have the extra reserves because y’all were catching up with Camila in the gym last week. All of you have put in the work and now you deserve to win this game and take us to the next round. So what do you all say about lifting our heads and playing with a hundred and fifty percent from here on out!” Lauren said as she threw her hand into the middle of everyone waiting for them.

Camila of course was just a second after Lauren, along with Dinah, Ally and Normani. The rest of the team was to their feet instantly and throwing their hands in. All huddled together waiting for their next instructions.

“Now I see winners in every single one of you. Remember it is only when you start thinking you are beat that you are truly defeated. So from here on out only winning thoughts. Only positive vibes. We’ve got this if we go out there and play our game not theirs. So Positive Thinking on three!”

All the girls nodded to each other smiling that they had their leader still with them even if she wasn’t on the floor with them. All the girls starting getting excited gaining back the little hop of adrenaline.

“Three!”

Everyone cheered and was back out on the court way before they were suppose to but none of them cared they just wanted to play and win. Lauren hung back with Camila in the locker room.

“That was...wow Lauren.” Camila said.

“Thanks.” Lauren said rubbing the back of her neck.

“Hey Lo will you go out with me tonight?” Camila asked.

Lauren smiled at Camila. “Hell yeah. Only if you win though.” Lauren smirked.

Camila secretly loved it when Lauren smirked at her, to Camila it was just adorable. “Deal.”

The two girls made their way back to the court and the coaches called Lauren over to them.

“So that was a little different.” Coach said.

“Um, yeah hope that was okay. I just thought they needed to hear it from me that it was okay for them to win without me on the floor.” Lauren said suddenly very interested in her shoes.

“That was more than okay Lauren. What you did in there was great. I knew that you had that final leadership quality in you and was just waiting for you to bring it out.”

Lauren smiled at her coaches. “Thanks. Was that all you needed? I’d still like to shoot around with everyone if that is okay.”

“Actually that is more than okay. You’re starting the second half.” Lauren’s smile was beaming at this point. “However if we feel like you are in pain at all we are pulling you. No but’s this time Lauren.” The coaches said sternly and Lauren knew they meant it.

“Alright. I understand. I will let you know if it is too much as well.” Lauren decided that she would try and not be the stubborn hard headed player that she usually always was.

“Thank you. Now go warm up.” The coaches laughed as Lauren sprinted over to the other girls with a huge smile.

“GUYS!!” Lauren shouted jumping on Dinah’s back.

“Yo dawg get off of me.” Dinah said sliding Lauren off but turning to her with a smile of her own wondering why she was in such a god mood.

“I’m starting the second half!” Lauren was practically bouncing up and down in front of them all.

Everyone had smiles on their faces that she was getting to play but went back to warming up. 

~~~~~~~

With two minutes left to go the Tigers had closed the gap and were battling back and forth to stay in the lead. So with another three pointer sunk by Ally the Tigers went up by two points again. The Tigers fell back into a regular defense not wanting to risk doing a full court press right now. Which was actually proving beneficial for them at the moment.

“Alright folks this game has been one heck of a ride as we are down to the last two minutes the Tigers are ahead by just two points after that last three pointer shot by Hernandez. Let’s see if the Tigers can hold the Lions on defense.” The announcer said.

“Lions inbound the ball and look surprised that the Tigers aren’t playing full court press. Lions bring it across the line....BUT WAIT HAMILTON HAS STOLEN THE BALL!! She lays it in for the easy two points. What a steal that was! That is one for the highlight reel. It was almost like she knew that it was going to her player. Hamilton jumped for the ball before it had even left the defenders hands.”

The crowd was on their feet shouting at the top of their lungs. This game was turning out better than they ever expected. 

“Alright Lions bring the ball down. Dunn passes to Freighter on the wing cuts inside. Gets past the screen set for her. WOAH! Dunn gets a bullet passed to her but it’s too hot to handle and is out of bounds. Tigers throw in. Hansen takes the throw in but Lions are pressing, let’s see what the Tigers got.”

Lauren was frantically trying to lose her man to get open and not succeeding. Ally ran up from her spot and got open for the pass from Dinah.

“Uh oh looks like the Tigers are having a hard time with this press Jauregui and Cabello are covered and can’t gain an inch of space. Here comes Hernandez and the ball is in. Let’s see if they can make it across half court before time is up. Hernandez takes a few steps but is soon stopped she passes back to Hansen. Hansen looks flustered as two defenders come at her. Hansen throws it to Hamilton who gets it across the half way line.” 

“Hamilton holds it waiting for her team to get here. Hamilton to Cabello on the three point line. Must of been some miscommunication on the Lions part as Cabello lets a three soar. IT’S IN!!! Tigers now lead by seven points. No one could have expected this outcome from the start of this game. Who knew the Tigers could come back from fifteen points behind. This is a game for the books.” The announcer was on his feet with the crowd loving every minute of this game.

The Tigers fell back on defense still not going with the full court press.

“With only thirty seconds left to play it would be a miracle if the Lions came back for the win. Lions bring it up with a little more pace than usual. Dunn to Wade under the basket and IT’S IN!! Lion’s down by five now if they steal it and make a few layups they just might do it. Let’s see if they can do it!” The announcer was holding the mic up as he was watching the game on the edge of his chair.

“Alright full court press is on and there is no sign of the Lion’s giving up. Looks like Jauregui and Cabello are trying anything they can think of to get open. Hamilton comes up to help. OH NO!! Jauregui is down and Hansen calls a timeout when she doesn’t pop right back up. Jauregui has brought the Tigers back alive in the second half let’s all hope that she is okay.” 

 

“Lauren are you okay?! I’m so sorry.” Normani says kneeling next to Lauren.

“I’m...okay...just...hit me....hard.” Lauren let’s out in breathes.

“Are you sure?” Normani asked worried that she really hurt her friend.

“Yes. Please help me up and let’s finish this. Mani, how about we block the defender next time and not me, okay?” Lauren joked trying to play off the pain she felt when Normani crashed into her ribs. Maybe she wasn’t ready to come back. 

The coaches looked at her worriedly but when she got up relatively soon they sat the substitute back down.

“Babe you good?” Camila asked coming to Lauren’s side.

“Yeah Mani just caught me at the right angle is all. Now let’s do this. Oh and how about a one, two shake? Yeah?” Lauren asked with a smile and a wink.

Camila smiled bright and shook her head yes.

“Jauregui’s back up and everything looks good. Let’s see if the Tigers can hold on for just a little while longer. Tigers are set to inbound the ball. Looking at this formation though you would think they have never played basketball before. Three Tigers are standing out of bounds by the half way line opposite Cabello and Jauregui. Let’s see what happens here.” 

Camila ran to Dinah and told her the play who in turn went and told the other girls. Camila slapped the ball and Normani and Dinah were standing in front of Ally on the sideline. Their defenders weren’t sure if they should stay or go and help block Lauren.

“Looks like Hansen Hernandez and Hamilton have had enough of this game and are standing it out. Let’s see what Cabello and Jauregui can do. Jauregui is now being triple teamed and I see no way of her getting free to get the ball. WAIT!! Cabello pulls back and launches it down to her basket....IT’S INTO THE HANDS OF HERNANDEZ!!! HERNANDEZ LAYS IT UP!! IT’S IN THE TIGERS ARE UP BY SEVEN AGAIN!! THIS GAME IS PRETTY MUCH OVER FOR THE LIONS!! WHAT A PLAY NO ONE SAW THAT COMING!!”

All the girls ran to Ally and hugged and congratulated her before they went ahead and set up their full court press.

“All the Tigers have to do is hold out for five more seconds. There it is the buzzer sounds as the Lions try to bring it up the court. Tigers are going on to the next round. Sweet sixteen here they come! What a game! What a comeback! Till next time this is Ace McNuggen signing off!” The announcer turned his equipment off and was running to celebrate with the Tigers.

~~~~~~

“YO MANI?!” Dinah yelled over the loud music. “Ally’s looking for you.”

Normani just nodded and went to find the game winner. Lauren and Camila laughed knowing exactly what Dinah was up to. The two girls watched as Dinah spiked Normani’s drink as she had been doing to everyone’s that night. Dinah thought that she was fooling everyone, but people caught on rather quick to what she was doing. Still Camila, Lauren and Dinah all busted up laughing when Normani returned and took a big drink to only spit it right back out.

“DINAH WHAT THE HELL!! You’re dead!!” Normani yelled as Dinah took off with Mani not to far behind.

“What are we going to do with those two?” Camila asked while trying to calm down her laughter.

“Keep them for as long as we can.” Lauren said sincerely.

Camila turned and caught Lauren’s eyes and smiled back at her. Camila slowly moved herself on Lauren’s lap turning to straddle Lauren. Lauren’s hands found Camila’s waist on instinct. Camila’s arms laid on Lauren’s shoulders as her fingers got lost in Lauren’s dark locks.

“So what do you want to do tonight?” Lauren raised a curious eyebrow and gave Camila a suggestive smirk. 

“Not like that perv.” Camila smacked Lauren’s shoulder. “I know you don’t want to be here. I can almost feel the adrenaline pumping out of you. So tell me what is it that you really want to do to celebrate?”

Lauren smiled at the thought of Camila beginning to understand her so much more than she had ever let anyone before. “Well if you’re game come on and I’ll show you.” 

Lauren let Camila get off of her lap, stood and took Camila’s hand leading them out of Dinah’s house and to her motorcycle. They strapped on their helmets and were off. Camila was surprised when they showed up at Lauren’s house. 

“We have to change cars for this trip. So hope in the jeep and let’s go.” Lauren said helping Camila unstrap her helmet.

“Okay...?” Camila said now really curious.

Lauren made the trip to Camila’s house in record time and still Camila was curious to what they were doing.

“Camz if you really wanna know how I celebrate after we win go grab your little sister and tell your mom that both of you are staying at my place tonight.” Lauren said with a smile.

Camila smiled at Lauren wanting to include Sofi as she was one of the most important people in her life. “I don’t know if my mom will actually let me stay with you...alone.”

Lauren took Camila‘s hand easing the girls nervousness in a small squeeze. “One we won’t be alone all the kids will be there. Two Milika will be there too. Three I still have yet to take you out on a second date.” Lauren said with a smile.

Camila smiled back and then jumped out of the car as fast as she could to go get everything. Sofi was the first one out the door and ran to get in the jeep but was too short to make the step up by herself. Lauren quickly got out and helped Sofi into the car. Sofi giggled and thanked Lauren for helping her up. When Lauren got back in the car she was assaulted with twenty questions.

“Where are we going Lauren? Is Taylor going to be there? Do you really like my sister? Like do you love her? What about Chris? He’s really good at football. Do you think that he could play for the big guys? Were you excited to play tonight? Are you going to move away when you graduate? Kaki is. I’m going to be sad when that happens. I don’t want her to leave, she is my best friend.” 

Lauren almost didn’t catch everything that Sofi had asked her as the smaller Cabello shot it out in almost one breath. Lauren was laughing lightly till Sofi got to the last part and then it was like it all hit Lauren. Soon her and Camila would be going off to different schools to pursue what they wanted to do with their lives. Lauren would never in a million years make Camila choose between her and doing something she loved. Lauren wasn’t sure exactly what she was going to do about that right now though. The two had never really talked about anything pertaining to their futures.

“Are you okay Lauren?” Camila asked when she got back to the car and Lauren was staring off into space and Sofi was looking at Lauren like she had broken her.

“Oh...uhm, yeah I’m good.” Lauren said with what she hoped was a smile.

“Okay.” Camila let it drop making a mental note to ask Lauren what was wrong later.

The ride to Sierra and Alex’s house was quiet, even Sofi seemed to realize that something was off between the two girls. Sofi stayed quiet though trying to figure out if she was the one that caused it. Camila noticed Sofi was quiet and talked to her once Lauren left the car to go get Taylor and Chris.

“Hey princess, what’s wrong?” Camila asked.

“I think I made Lauren mad with all the questions I asked.” Sofi looked like she was ready to cry.

Camila climbed into the back seat with her sister and hugged her. “I’m sure that she is not mad. Lauren was probably just caught off guard. Even you have to admit that you ask a lot of questions. Do you remember any of them that you asked her?”

“I was asking her about you, and Taytay and Chris. I didn’t mean to make her mad or sad. I was just excited that she invited me along. I’m sorry Kaki.” With that said Sofi broke down and cried thinking that she had indeed made Lauren mad at her.

When Lauren came back with Chris and Taylor she was caught off guard when she saw Sofi crying. 

“Hey butterfly queen? What’s wrong sweetie?” Lauren asked as she opened that door next to Sofi.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to.” Sofi said still crying as she turned to bury her head back into Camila’s shoulder. Lauren looked at Camila with a confused face and wondered why Sofi thought that she had done something wrong.

“Sofi can you tell me what you’re sorry for?” Lauren asked rubbing Sofi’s back, coaxing the smaller Cabello to look at her.

Sofi finally turned and looked at Lauren. Lauren smiled and wiped the tears from Sofi’s face. “Hi there.” Lauren said.

“I’m sorry I made you mad or sad Lauren. I didn’t mean to ask so many questions.” Sofi said.

So that was what this was all about, Lauren thought to herself. “Sweetie you did nothing wrong. I was just thinking was all. I could never be mad at you. You’re my little butterfly queen and I wouldn’t change you for anything in the world. Including all the questions you ask.” Lauren said with a smile and pulled Sofi in for a hug.

Sofi quickly latched onto Lauren and smiled when she pulled away. “Okay Lauren! I’ll try to not ask so many next time anyways.” Sofi smiled and started playing with Taylor now that everything else was over with.

“Well that was a quick turn around. Thanks for settling the other two for me.” Lauren said getting back in the driver’s seat.

“No problem babe. So where are we going? What did she asked that got you so quiet?” Camila tried to get it out of Lauren.

Lauren heard the question but really just didn’t want to talk about it right now so she choose to ignore it. “We’re going someplace special.”

Lauren smirked as Camila just shook her head. “Fine don’t tell me. We are so not done talking about the other thing either.”

Lauren just smiled and squeezed Camila’s hand letting her know that she was listening. Soon they were pulling up to the beach.

“Wait this is your secret place?” Camila said as you recognized it as the very same beach that she was at earlier.

“Yep.” Lauren said popping the p and smiling as she helped the kids out of the jeep to enjoy the beach at night.

~~~~~~~

“You sure you don’t want to count it?” 

“Yeah I’m sure. I’ll trust it for now. It comes up short though and you’ll be hearing from me.” Lauren said.

“For some reason I’m not scared.” The drug dealer said with a cocky smirk.

“Maybe you should be scared. You haven’t seen my boss.” Lauren spat back crossing her arms and staring the slightly older guy down.

“Something tells me that I will be just fine.” The guy flexed his arms trying to prove he could handle himself.

“Alright put the squirt guns away no ones impressed.” Lauren lightly laughed. “See you next time.”

Lauren grabbed the case of money and backed out of the room making sure to not take her eyes off of the three body guards in the room with them. Lauren closed the office door behind her and made her way to the elevators. The fact that there were about five more guys hanging about had Lauren on edge. When Lauren caught a glimpse of a handgun on one of the guys she knew that she was in big trouble. Without hesitation Lauren told the guys in her ear the code words.

“Dude’s I could really use some nice surf right about now.” 

Lauren said it to the group of guys as they started taking a few steps towards her. Lauren was actually frightened. Lauren never thought that she would be in a situation like this. No one besides Jacks had ever pulled on gun on her. Lauren knew that Jacks would have never actually pulled the trigger he even said so himself at the trial. Lauren though was scared out of her mind as two of the guys pulled their guns from their holsters. The other three were standing back almost like they were just there to be witnesses in case the two bulkheads in front of her some how failed. The two in front of her chuckled as they got a little closer. Lauren was really starting to worry and wanted to know where her back up was.

“Give us the money CJ and we won’t make it last long.” The one with a scar across his face said.

“I can’t do that. You guys do know that if you do this the Cartel is going to hunt you down one by one and torture you a hell of a lot more than anything you could do to me. Then you know that they will go for anyone that you are close to or hell have even talked to and then torture them too.” Lauren was trying her best to waste time.

“So are you sure that you want to do this?” Lauren was actually terrified she might get shot right in this moment.

As Lauren slammed into a desk behind her she knew that she was out of time and that things were about to go very badly for her. The two bulkheads were getting closer, one of them reached for the bag but Lauren had a tight grip on it knowing that she needed it for the case to go smoothly. Lauren was also gripping it due to the fear that was coursing through her veins. Lauren squinted her eyes expecting a blow to her face that never came as the stairwell door slammed open and about fifteen swat team members entered the room.

Lauren dropped to her knees in relief when she finally opened her eyes and saw all of them. Lauren knew that this was going to be the last time that she did this. Lauren was done and wanted nothing to do with this anymore. The officers came closer and because they didn’t know all the details restrained and handcuffed her as well as everyone else in the room.

As the swat team moved to apprehend the big guy in the next room a couple shots rang out making Lauren flinch and wish that she was somewhere else besides in that room at the moment. The swat team soon came back out through the doors with the leader in cuffs and bleeding from the arm. Apparently he got grazed in the arm and cried like a little girl. Lauren knew that he was just a go to guy much like herself and the D.A. would use him to get to his boss. 

When they were all cuffed and the detectives walked in, Heather saw Lauren in the cuffs but knew that she couldn’t do anything for the girl at the moment. Heather went through the motions of gathering all the information that she needed along with making sure that all the money and drugs was accounted for. Officers were slowly pulling some of the bodyguards out of the building and into awaiting cars to take them to booking. When they got to Lauren, Heather reacted out of haste. 

“The girls stays. We’re going to have a little chat about who she works for.” Heather said with crossed arms and a raised eyebrow to Lauren.

“I’m not telling you anything....bitch!” Lauren knew that she needed to play the part and added on the last comment for the drug dealers still in the room.

“So you are saying that you work for someone. Hhmph, and here I thought that you would be the one that took the longest to break.” Heather added with another smirk.

“Play your games all you want pig but trust me you won’t get anything out of me.” Lauren threw back.

The two went back and forth until the other guys were out of the building. Lauren finally relaxed as the door shut behind the last guy leaving. Lauren sunk back to the floor sitting on her knees trying to take as much pressure off of her ribs as she possibly could. Heather was quick to move to her side and take the handcuffs off.

Lauren rubbed at her wrists when they were released. “Heather I can’t do this anymore.”

Heather was a little caught off guard but knew that Lauren was on the verge of stopping this anyways. “First are you okay?”

“Yeah I’m good just a little sore.” Lauren said standing and going to sit in an office chair.

“Not what I meant. You just had a life threatening situation thrown in your face. Are you okay?” Heather said dragging out the words of the last question.

“That is why I think that I need this to be over. I don’t want to do this anymore because I am just so tired of being in these situations, as you like to call them.” Lauren said sinking her face into her hands leaning on the desk.

Heather walked over and went to touch Lauren’s shoulder to comfort the girl when she pulled away in reaction. Lauren shot Heather a small smile but still tensed when Heather touched her anyways. Heather kneeled down to Lauren’s level in the chair.

“I get it kiddo. I really do. So come on I will take you home.” Heather offered helping Lauren stand.

“If it’s alright with you I would rather just go give my statement, get paid, turn everything in and then just go home on my bike.” Lauren said with almost a sad puppy face.

“Alright if that is what you want we can do that. I have to put you back in the cuffs though. All the drug guys will be there and I still need to protect you.” Heather said taking the cuffs back out.

Lauren sighed but put her arms behind her back and let Heather cuff her, all be it she did it a lot looser than the swat team had done. The drive downtown was quiet and Lauren was fine with that. In the station all the officers seeing her in cuffs knew that she was still undercover so they knew not to engage her like they usually would.

“So you’re sure about this?” Heather asked just to make sure.

Lauren slumped in the chair a little bit more. “Yeah I think that it is for the best. I need to focus on Chris and Taylor now. Well more than what I was doing. I owe it to them to be there for them. So yeah having a gun in my face was what threw me over the edge if that is what you were asking. I don’t want to be in that kind of situation again. I mean the parties that I did get to go to where a blast, just not worth all the shit I had to go through in them. Thanks though for everything Heather. Don’t know what I would do without you these last few weeks.”

Heather just smiled at Lauren and moved around her desk to hug the teenager. “Trust me when I say that having you in my life was just as great. I know that you are going to make something of your life and it is going to be....absolutely amazing. I just need to remind you that sometimes things seem to look like they are sinking all around you. Find that one anchor that calms you and makes you remember who you are. Find that anchor that reminds you everyday that you are trying your hardest that you are doing what you can to succeed in life. That is the feeling that you need to hold onto for the rest of your life.”

Lauren hugged Heather back then gathered her stuff from her locker saying goodbye to all the guys she always liked in the department. As Lauren was leaving out the back door to her bike Heather gave her one last thought. 

“Hey Lauren! I expect tickets to all of your games in the future. I never want to miss even one.” Lauren just smiled as she got on her bike and rode off to go and act like a normal teenager and everything that that entailed. 

Including the conversations that she wasn’t sure she ever wanted to have.


	12. Chapter 12

“Are you ready for this!?” Lauren jumped up throwing her hand in the middle of the huddle.

“Yeah!” The team cheered.

“I said are you ready for this!?” Lauren yelled again pumping up her team.

“YEAH!” the team yelled louder than before.

“That’s what I’m talking about! Now let’s show those Pirates who we are! No mercy tonight. T A K A on three!” Lauren cheered again. “THREE!”

“T! A! K! A!!!” the team yelled and then took the floor.

All the girls took the floor and for once Lauren was looking to the stands. Lauren never once looked in the stands before, if anything good came out of everything that had happened in the last three months, it was now Lauren had more family then she could ever imagine. All the families had came out to the state championship game. There seemed to be a whole section that was only family members of the team. Lauren ran and hugged Chris and Taylor before taking the court.

“Go Lauren!” “Love you Lauren!” The kids yelled after hugging Lauren.

Lauren took the court with the rest of the girls for the tip off. 

“Alright ladies and gentlemen this is it, this is the game that we have been waiting for. It’s the Riverton Pirates visiting the Eastdale Tigers. Let’s see if last years Champions, who are undefeated this season, can pull off another win.” The announcer clued everyone in. 

“What a game this is turning out to be! The Tigers are down by three heading in to half time as the Pirates threw a hail mary before the buzzer. The first half has been a nail biter, neither team has gotten a step ahead of the other. This is the kind of Championship game that people like to watch!” The announcer filled everyone in as the teams went to the locker rooms. “Now to see if the Tigers let Jauregui play more than ten minutes in the second half.”

The Tigers took to the locker room with mixed emotions and tired legs. Lauren knew that they needed something to pump them up. Lauren really needed her team to step it up. Even though it was a fair game Lauren knew that they could beat them hands down. All she needed was something for her team to focus on, and she had the perfect thing.

“Lauren, what are you thinking?” Camila said noticing the playful smirk on Lauren as she handed her a water bottle.

“What do you guys say to playing street ball for the rest of the game?” the team turned and looked at Lauren like she was crazy.

“Lauren are you nuts? Those guys will eat us alive.” Jones questioned with at least half the team backing her.

“Think about it you guys. They know our plays. They have studied film on us, you know they have. We did on them too. So here’s the thing if we go out there and run no plays at all they won’t know what to do. We might be able to catch them by surprise and get a lead for a little while. Then when they least expect it we will go back to running our new plays. We can do this guys we just need to believe it. We are not the under dogs we are the number one and two teams from last year. So let’s go out there and show them why they shouldn’t let the two teams join together and become one powerhouse!” 

Lauren said all this watching as the girls eyes lit up and their demeanors started to change. Lauren just smiled as all her teammates started to get excited to go play the second half. Finally it seemed like things were actually going Lauren’s way. All she had to do was let go of all the bad shit and things started feeling better. Lauren’s thoughts went to Chris and Taylor who were in the stands tonight jumping up and down with their posters every time that Lauren went into the game. Lauren just couldn’t get the two smiling kids out of her head and it was making her smile brighter too.

Lauren felt Camila next to her before she ever said anything. “That was amazing Lo. You’re getting good at this.” 

“Thanks Camz.” Lauren hugged her girlfriend, “now let’s go show you what winning a championship feels like.” Lauren teased running out of the locker room after the team.

“You are a jerk Lo!” Camila yelled chasing Lauren out the door, but ran smack dab into her back when she came out the door.

“What is it this time Lo?” Camila asked grabbing Lauren’s hand.

Lauren was staring at the family section and had tears brimming in her eyes at the sight in front of her. “She wasn’t suppose to be back yet.” 

“Who Lauren?” Camila was still trying to figure it out until the girl in the stands turned around and Camila immediately noticed the family resemblance.

“Sierra,” was all Lauren said and then started walking toward her family dragging Camila along with her.

It was on of those cheesy movie moments, both sisters gave each other that I’ve missed you so much look and neither could stop the tears streaming down their faces. Lauren didn’t care about anything in that moment except hugging her older sister that just looked way to damn much like her mother. The pain and anger could wait till later, right now she just wanted that embrace to last forever, to just stay there like nothing had happened. Camila stood next to Lauren talking to their younger siblings letting her girlfriend have her moment, even though Sierra kept glancing at her trying to judge who she was. Soon enough though the buzzer was sounding and Camila was wiping Lauren’s tears away as they took the floor.

“You okay babe?” Camila asked when they got out of their huddle.

“Yeah she just wasn’t suppose to be here till tomorrow. I’m really glad she made the game.” Lauren said with a smile, squeezing Camila’s hand as they both walked toward their positions.

“So who was that Mama H?” Sierra asked as they cheered the girls on.

“That was Camila,” Malika wasn’t sure if Lauren told Sierra she was gay so she withheld some information, “and this is her mother Sinu Cabello and her daughter Sofi.” The two Cabello’s said hi respectively and then went about cheering. 

“I thought Cabello was Lauren’s nemesis from the school across town?” Sierra asked looking at the town teams on the floor wondering how much she had actually missed.

The moms around her just laughed. “Sierra you have missed a lot. We will all talk after the game, but the short version is that the other school burned to the ground and while they are rebuilding it this year the two schools joined. So we got a super team that has gone undefeated this season.” With that Malika was done talking and got all into cheering her girls in the game on.

~~~~~~~

“Alright ladies and gentlemen that are just tuning in we have two minutes left, the Pirates are up by five points, and full court pressing. Let’s see what these Tigers have up there sleeves.” The announcer took a breathe as the ref let the substitution in for the Pirates.

Lauren yelled the play before everyone got set, “Jelly roll!! Jelly roll!!”, and the other three girls were all right next to her.

Dinah slapped the ball and everyone took off for a different corner of the court except Lauren who ran straight for Dinah. Camila’s person came over to double Lauren thinking she was getting the ball so Dinah lobed it over the three players in front of her and set Camila up for a wide open three pointer. Camila dribbled it where her sweet spot and let it soar with a flick of the wrist and she knew it was in when it left her hand. The crowd jump out of their seats, not like they weren’t already up, and cheers filed the gymnasium as the Tigers were now only two points behind.

“That’s it the Tigers pulled off a new play expertly and they are now with in another two points to win the game. First let’s see if they can stop the Pirates from getting the ball in. Wait it looks like the Tigers are going to....yes they are pressing. They haven’t had much success tonight with stopping the Pirates in full press but let’s see what they have up their sleeve.” The announcer filled in whoever in town was not at the game that night. 

“Tickets! Tickets!” Lauren yelled and all the girls were changing defenders except Lauren. The girls noticed in a timeout that they would be better suited switching it up a little, so the reserved this play to throw the other team off hopefully. 

Lauren watched as the girl throwing the ball in paused for a second trying to figure out the new rotation and who she could get it to. Lauren was hoping the she stuck with throwing it to her player and the inbounder did. Lauren let her mark get halfway open and then pounced when the ball was thrown in. Lauren only got a piece of it though and it went back out of bounds on the baseline.

“Dang it!” Lauren clapped her hands together upset with herself that she couldn’t hold onto the ball or at least knock it off her mark. 

“Jauregui just about had the inbound pass! Ladies and gents this game is one for the books! If you’re not here right now, you have missed one hell of a game, and shame on you! Alright, Pirates set up again, and quickly launch it toward the halfway line...HAMILTON COMES OUT OF NOWHERE!!! Tigers have the ball with thirty seconds left to go let’s see what they can come up with!” The hometown announcer is all but jumping out onto the court with excitement.

“Hamilton passes to Cabello. Cabello to Hansen. Hansen to Hernandez. Hernandez to Hamilton. Hamilton back to Cabello. Wait where did Jauregui go....Jauregui is standing by the halfway line, WHAT IS SHE DOING!???!!!” The announcer was all but yelling at Lauren himself. 

Lauren waited for the double team to come over and like a rocket she took off stealing the ball form Cabello and went in for a lay up before the other team knew what hit them, making Dinah’s guard turn around and smack right into Lauren. 

“THE SHOT IS GOOD!!! AND A FOUL!! Could this game get any more exciting?! The foul is called if Jauregui makes this one then we will surely win with only five seconds left on the clock. Jauregui gets up slowly making her way to the free throw line as the defender had no idea she was there and basically clothes lined the girl. Everything looks to be okay though as Jauregui shakes it off with some encouraging words from her teammates.”

Lauren was hurting like hell. “That girls arm was like a fucking freight train,” she says softly as the girls huddle around her. 

Dinah and Normani laughed and took their places knowing that if Lauren was joking then she was okay. Ally and Camila of course were a little more concerned. “I’m fine Camz. Now worries just knocked the breathe out me.” Lauren saw the worry in both of their eyes. “Guys I promise I’m fine. Now let’s win this.”

Lauren went to her spot and tuned out everything in the gym. All the cheers and boos and drums and players. Lauren needed this shot. The ref passed her the ball and Lauren took a deep breathe closed her eyes and when she opened them everyone was gone, well maybe not gone but blurry as she focused on following through. Lauren spun the ball out in front of her and let it come back. Took two dribbles, lined her feet up, looked at the basket and let the ball soar. Like she had a million times in practice. With a swoosh the gymnasium was louder than it had ever been.

All the girls quickly picked up their players and waited for the inbound pass and the desperation shot. The shot that would never come because the other team couldn’t get open to lob the ball. The whole team ran out celebrating with the girls on the floor, soon Lauren was engulfed in a team huddle and surrounded by her teammates. After the team celebrated for a good five minutes they broke apart and shook the other teams’ hands.

The other teams point guard pulled Camila and Lauren to the side when she shook their hands. “Where in the hell did that play come from? No way one of your coaches came up with that.”

Camila laughed and gestured to Lauren, Lauren had a huge smile on her face and chuckled. “Truthfully my little brother came up with it. I saw him playing with his friends and he did it to one of them. It was something that I knew no one could get a play book on as only three of us knew of it’s existence. By the way who gave you are playbook?” Lauren asked knowing the other team had to have it.

The other girl knew that her team was busted but nothing said that they couldn’t study their opponents plays and use them against them. Besides the book didn’t have the names of the play in them, so it wasn’t really cheating, right? “One of the girls from your team actually. One that didn’t want any part of the two teams merging. Which I am sure she is regretting right now.” The Pirate said with a grin.

“That figures. At least I know to tell the other girls to keep the book on lock down next year. Anyways great game, you’re an amazing player. I hope to meet you on the court in the future.” Lauren said grabbing Camila’s hand wanting to go celebrate with her team mates and family.

“Yeah you should probably do that. Nope won’t see me I’m only a junior. Great game to you two also. You had me on my toes all night. Good luck with choosing what school you want to go to.” With that the other girl shook their hands again and made her way to the visiting locker room.

Lauren turned Camila in to her and hugged her with all the strength she had left. The smile never left either one of their faces. Tears of joy running down their faces, Lauren pushed Camila back just enough to look into her girlfriends eyes. “We did it Camz! We fucking won! We fought through all of this shit and won!”

“Yeah you did amazing!! Now let’s go celebrate with our teammates.” Camila was fast to get surrounded by her family and team mates and just enjoyed the celebration.

Lauren stood and watched everyone around her, her team had won the championship for the last three years, she had friends who she didn’t have to keep secrets from anymore. Lauren had people around that loved her and she was actually starting to believe it. Chris and Taylor were safe, and for once she wasn’t worried about where they would all sleep at night. Lauren couldn’t wipe the smile off her face as Dinah and Ally embraced their new friends in one of her infamous bear hugs. 

It didn’t take to long for the girls to notice they were missing Lauren. Ally spotted her first and just slowly walked over to her best friend. “Hey Lauren,” Ally said with a huge smile, “what are you doing over here by yourself?” 

Lauren let Ally engulf her in a hug, lifting the smaller girl off the floor and twirling her around. Lauren and Ally laughed as Lauren set Ally down. “I just...it was so...just with everything this season. I just needed a second.” Lauren tried to find the right words. 

“I get that.” Ally said still holding onto Lauren. “Just remember that you’re not alone. We are all here for you, no matter what.”

“That goes for us too.” Normani and Dinah said walking up behind the duo. 

Lauren turned and the two girls wrapped her up in a hug. “Guys....I need to....breathe.” All of them laughed as Mani and Dinah let her go.

“And you know I’ll always be there.” Camila said with a huge smile and joined in on the hugging. Lauren wrapped her arms around Camila and the other girls hugged around the both of them. Lauren didn’t realize it till the girls were all around them that this was the last time she would get this feeling. The last time that she would celebrate a victory with the people that mattered to her the most. 

All the girls pulled away joining back into the celebration at ease that Lauren was indeed alright. Lauren didn’t realize that she was crying till Camila wiped the tears away with her thumbs. “You alright babe?”

“Yeah I’m fine. Just thinking about how this is the last time that I get to celebrate with my best friends after a championship.” Lauren said smiling and trying to hold back any more tears that might fight their way out. 

Camila didn’t fight was she was feeling and didn’t care that they were surrounded by a thousand people at the moment. Camila just knew what she was feeling and wanted to do it. Lauren looked at her with a raised eyebrow curious as to what Camila was thinking at the moment. Lauren soon found out when Camila raised onto her tip toes, laced her hands behind Lauren’s neck and kissed Lauren with everything she was feeling at the moment. It took Lauren a moment to react but when Camila felt Lauren’s lips moving with hers and Lauren’s hands grabbed ahold of her waist moving her in closer, Camila smiled into the kiss.

Lauren and Camila didn’t care about anything else at that moment. They got lost in each other until a voice broke them out of it.  
“Lauren?” Sierra gave her sister a smirk, “what ya up to?” 

Lauren just smiled and shook her head at her sister pulling Camila in closer as she tried to back away. “Just kissing my beautiful and amazing girlfriend.”

Camila had the brightest smile on her face at the statement. “You got a problem with that S?” Camila felt Lauren tense asking the question. Camila knew this was make or break for the two sisters.

“Nope not at all. You two are adorable together.” Sierra gave them a wink. “I’ll just catch up with you later at the party.” 

With that Sierra was gone and the two were left alone again. Lauren just shook her head and relaxed back into Camila’s embrace. Camila hugged her tight until she pulled back. “Wanna get out of here?” Lauren asked.

“Yeah let’s grab the girls and go to our party.” Camila answered as they pulled apart linked hands and started finding the other three girls.

~~~~~~

“Come on Lauren! Please! Just a little while longer.” Chris begged with huge puppy dog eyes, even going as far to get down on his knees. 

Lauren couldn’t resist any longer, luckily Malika rescued her. “You girls go. I know you need to talk things through. I’ve got them.”

“Thanks Malika. I don’t know what I would do with out you.” Lauren said honestly wrapping her second mom up into a bear hug. 

“You’re welcome sweetie. Now go.” Malika let go and pushed the girl toward the door.

“Follow us.” Lauren said to Sierra as her and Camila got on her bike and road out to the pier.

~~~~~

“When did this all start Lauren?” Sierra asked.

Lauren found everything else in the restaurant interesting, not wanting to actually talk about this but knowing that she needed to. Lauren hated reliving all of it. It was all the messy details, it was reliving the pain that every word caused. The scars would always be there too; inside and out. Lauren had to find the right words. It started when Sierra left. It was like her dads anchor broke. For some reason when Sierra left for college that is when the damn opened and her dad stayed home more, drank more. Then add in the fact that she was gay and everything was like a blurred mess of hate and pain.

“Lauren please just tell me.” Sierra said with sadness in her eyes laying her hand on top of Lauren’s.

“A few months after you left for college,” Sierra’s jaw dropped, “It was mostly hateful words. Especially when he found out that I was gay.” 

Sierra wasn’t exactly sure what to do, she knew that it was the right choice to get her education. Now she was thinking that maybe it was wrong. Lauren never deserved that, neither did the other two. “I’m so sorry Lolo. I knew that I shouldn’t have left.”

“No Sierra. It was the right choice.” Lauren squeezed Sierra’s hand. “You needed to get out of here. That is why I urged you to go. Did I ever think that things would have pushed this far? No. Here’s the thing though all of this needed to happen. Maybe not so much, but I like to think that I am better because of it.” 

Lauren grabbed Camila pulling her closer into her side. “Trust me when I say that I actually got something truly amazing out of this bullshit.”

“Me too, Lauren.” Camila whispered into Lauren’s ear, turning back to see Sierra giving her a knowing smirk.

“Thank you for taking care of her.” Sierra said.

Camila just nodded and gripped Lauren’s waist a little tighter. “I’m just glad that she finally let me in. Even if it was by complete accident. That was a fun night though.” Camila answered getting lost in her thoughts of being pressed up against the wall in the club.

“I am too.” Sierra added in. “What do you want to do now though? With dad and everything. Have you thought about what college you want to go to?”

Lauren let Camila go so the girl could finish her food. “I don’t know what we can do. I mean they still haven’t caught him. I just don’t know what I can do.” Lauren’s head dropped to her plate fascinated with the untouched food except for a few fries.

“Lauren they will catch him. He doesn’t have to many places to go anymore, he burned a ton of his bridges after mom died.” Sierra tried to reassure Lauren.

“I want to believe you,” Lauren ran a hand through her hair, “I just won’t be settled until he is arrested.” Lauren settled back into the booth crossing her arms across her chest.

“I get that Lauren, but you can’t spend ever second watching your back. Like how for the past five minutes anytime someone remotely moves behind us you are checking the whole place out.” Sierra said as Lauren went to interject until Camila squeezed her thigh. Lauren still needed Sierra to understand though.

“I can’t help that it’s second nature to me. I had to be able to see every corner of the room when we were at home. I never knew what door he would come through. I never knew if he was pissed sleep drunk, angry drunk, or beat the hell out of me drunk. I literally had about two seconds from when he walked in the door to decide how to handle him. It was a nightly routine anytime that we stayed home. Do you know that I put pad locks on all of our rooms and he still found a way to get through the damn things. Hell Chris and Taylor don’t even have doors on their rooms right now because he took them off so we couldn’t hide. The only reason I still have a door is because I stripped all the screw heads.” 

Lauren grabbed her lemonade slowly sending daggers at Sierra. “So sorry that I check my back every time something moves. I can’t help it. I had to protect them. No one else was there. No one else cared. You were more than happy to be at school away from him and just taking his word for it on your little phone conversations. Do you know he threw those in my face most of the time? Wanted to make sure that I knew no one cared about me. So don’t lecture me Sierra. You don’t know what I’m going through, you don’t know what I’ve dealt with. Chris and Taylor are more important than anything. They always have been for me.”

With that said Lauren got up and left the two other girls sitting there stunned at Lauren’s words. Camila wasn’t sure if she was intruding or not, and almost felt out of place hearing everything. Then again she also just wanted to wrap Lauren up in a bone crushing hug and not let go until all the worries and anger and hate drifted away. Sierra was also in shock. Sierra knew that things were bad she just never realized they were this bad. Sierra also felt like Lauren deserved to rip into her like that. Sierra felt horrible for leaving Lauren to that mess, yet Lauren was one of her biggest supporters in her going to college. Sierra knew that things were bad she just didn’t understand the extent of it all. Sierra was truly worried about her little sister.

“Let me go talk to her. Give me a couple minutes.” Camila said patting Sierra’s hand and following after Lauren.

“Camila?” Camila turned to face Sierra just varily hearing her speak. “Thank you.” 

Camila looked to Sierra slightly confused. “For taking care of Lauren when I wasn’t here. Thank you for loving her.”

Camila just nodded with a soft smile and ran out the door into the darkness letting her eyes adjust, Camila finally spotted her girl sitting down on the beach. Camila softly chuckled to herself, because of course that is where Lauren would be, and made her way toward her girlfriend. Camila just sat down next to Lauren knowing that she would talk when she was ready. Like so many times before, Lauren just picked up sand and let it trickle back down through her fingers. The act was soothing and everything Lauren needed at the moment. 

Lauren just didn’t know why Sierra thought she could just show up and expect everything to be peachy king. Lauren hated that, yet she still loved her sister. Lauren just couldn’t stand her saying everything was going to be alright. How could Sierra think that everything was alright? Sierra wasn’t here to take the punches. Sierra wasn’t there to listen to the hateful words, to feel like she was literally nothing. Lauren knew the words weren’t true but at the time it was all she was hearing, there were no encouraging words. There was no light at the end of the tunnel. There was no one to be there for her. Lauren still doesn’t understand why Camila is staying around. 

Everything that has happened in her life and she still can’t understand how anyone can love her with all of her scars. How anyone can see past them. Camila has known the scars are there the longest, yet treats Lauren like she is just another normal teenager who had a job and had to take care of her siblings. Lauren didn’t think she would ever understand how Camila loved her. Then again Lauren never expected to let anyone in, to let anyone know anything. Lauren never told Dinah for a reason, thinking that she could handle it by herself. Lauren thought she needed to show him that she didn’t need anyone to be better than him. Lauren knew that she would do it. Of course now she didn’t have to do it alone.

Lauren knew that Camila was watching her, waiting for her to settle down. Lauren also knew that Camila would sit there for as long as it took for her to talk. Lauren knew it was a matter of time before she broke too. Lauren looked over her shoulder back to the restaurant and saw that Sierra was looking at them with a kicked puppy dog look. Lauren couldn’t help it though, Sierra was always really good at pushing all of her buttons.

“I don’t know what you want me to say Camila.” Lauren said staring back out at the ocean.

“You don’t have to say anything. I’ve told you before, you have a right to feel any feelings that you are having. It doesn’t matter what they are.” Camila said not moving an inch toward Lauren.

“Sierra knows nothing of what I went through the last four years though. She has no right to tell me that everything is going to be okay. Sierra knows nothing about that man,” Lauren squeezed the sand in her hand as hard as she could, “The only reason I’m not worried about Chris and Taylor is because they are with Milika. Still I don’t understand how she thinks she can just walk in after everything that has happened to us and just be the hero. Sierra doesn’t get to be the hero. If anyone is....it’s you.” Lauren says looking to Camila and waited for the girl to look at her.

“No Lauren,” Camila stares deep into emerald eyes, “you are the bravest person that I know. You are the hero of this story. You protected them, you stood up to him, for them. That makes you the hero in this story. The only thing that I did was push it out of you just a little bit more. Lauren, yes you were in trouble, but you didn’t need me to save you.” Camila tipped her head up and kissed Lauren, Lauren soon broke it.

“I don’t know how Sierra thinks she can just walk in and everything be okay though. I mean it’s like she wants it to be five years ago, and somehow like nothing has happened. Camz absolutely everything has changed though. I had to go from a scared little girl to their protector all in a night. I don’t understand how Sierra can just say hey everything will be okay. Does she not understand everything that we went through? Everything that we’re still going through and will go through for the rest of our lives?” Lauren let go of the sand in her hand and let her head drop to her knees resting her forehead there knowing that Sierra had just walked up behind them.

“Lauren I never meant to under mind anything that you have been through, I just don’t know how to say that I’m sorry for everything. I don’t know how to tell you that you deserved none of that, and I wished that it was me in your place. I never knew that any of this was going to happen. When I left papi was going to aa meetings and grief counseling. I never in a million years would have stayed away if I knew that he was hurting any of you. Lauren I’m so....so sorry.” Sierra latched onto her little sister and cried thinking of all the pain that she most have went through.

Sierra most have said something right because Lauren engulfed Sierra and let more tears fall. Lauren again was thinking that all she ever did now was break down in tears in front of Camila. Lauren took a chance looking toward Camila, but Camila was just staring out at the ocean. Lauren grabbed Camila’s hand and squeezed causing Camila to look to the pair. Lauren gave Camila a reassuring smile and laced their fingers together. In that moment Lauren decided to drop the fight. Truthfully all she really wanted was some alone time with Camila anyways. To just celebrate winning another national championship. Lauren also knew that probably wouldn’t happen tonight.

Lauren finally felt Sierra relax and the tears seemed like they were letting up. Sierra pulled back from Lauren wiping the tears from her face. “Lauren you have to know that I would have came back if I’d have known. You’re my baby sister, Lolobear. I may have come at this wrong way, but I just want you to know that I am here for you. This time I’m not leaving until I know that everything is okay, and even then I might just stick around a little longer anyways. Just for good measures.” Sierra smiled bumping shoulders with Lauren.

Lauren felt her hand being squeezed by Camila, almost like a assurance that she was there too and not going anywhere. Lauren squeezed back and smiled back out at the ocean falling silent. Lauren just needed to take everything in and realize that there were people out there that loved her. That there were people she needed to let back into her life. Lauren knew that this was going to be a hard task until they caught her dad.

The three girls sat in silence just thinking about everything that had happened that day. Lauren though still couldn’t get her mind to focus though again worried about Chris and Taylor. Camila seemed to notice the girls mind drifting every once in a while and would let her hand rest on Lauren’s in the sand so Lauren knew she was still there.

“Alright kiddos, I’ve traveled all day, and then watched an amazing basketball game. So I say that we call it a night and go get some sleep. What do you say?” Sierra asked and smiled bright when she saw Lauren yawn.

“I think that answers your question.” Camila teased, nudging Lauren.

“Hey!” Lauren bumped Camila back. “Thanks a lot. You’re suppose to be on my side.”

Sierra laughed at the girls antics. “I didn’t realize you wanted to get rid of me so soon.” Lauren teased.

“I will never want to get rid of you.” Camila said seriously. “But I would love to go get some sleep.”

“I never want you gone either.” Lauren ran her hand through her hair. “So yeah how about we go and get some sleep.”

“Alright. Lauren I am spending the night and Milika’s so sleep in and don’t worry about the kids I have them and will take care of them tomorrow.” Lauren went to say something but Sierra butted in. “Yes Chris has practice at nine thirty and Taylor has a play date with Sofi at eleven. So don’t worry I got this. Now go and get some sleep and stop worrying about everything just for a few hours at least tonight. Okay?” Sierra said as they walked toward the parking lot letting Lauren get ahead of her and Camila.

“Camila take care of her tomorrow. Keep her occupied and just distracted. Lauren needs it.” Sierra said as Lauren was getting on her bike and not paying attention to them.

“I’ll try but everyone knows if she doesn’t want to do something that she won’t do it.” Camila answered back.

“I know but just try for me, will you?”

“Yeah I will.”  
~~~~~

“Lauren eventually we are going to have to talk about this.” Camila said.

Lauren stood up from laying on her bed and made her way to her desk, she flipped through her drawings till she found the one she wanted. Camila watched her and waited leaning up on her elbows on the bed. Lauren walked to her wall of drawings and pinned the new one up. Lauren laid back down on the bed with a smile as Camila got up and looked at the drawing. The drawing was of hands holding up a heart shape and Camila was draw in the middle of it. Camila smiled and knew that what she had heard in the hospital was what Lauren actually felt.

“Lauren what exactly does this mean?” Camila knew she just wanted to hear it.

“You know exactly what it means babe.” Lauren said with hands behind her head and a smirk on her face.

“Nope,” Camila popped the p, “I’m gonna need you to say it.” Camila laid down next to Lauren again.

Lauren turned on her right side facing Camila, and Camila turned toward her. Lauren pushed a piece of hair behind Camila’s ear and kissed the girl. A slow searing kiss that pulled Camila away from all of her thoughts. 

“I love you Camz.” Lauren said when she pulled back and watched Camila’s smile get even wider.

“I love you too.” Camila kissed the girl again.

“You know that’s not what I meant though.” Camila said when she knew that Lauren was using this as a distraction from what was really bothering her.

“I have no idea what you are talking about.” Lauren tried to go in for another kiss but Camila pulled away.

“Nope. No more kissing till we talk.” Camila pulled out of Lauren’s embrace and sat in her desk chair so that she wouldn’t feel tempted by Lauren.

“What do you want me to say Camila?” Lauren lad on her back and stared at the ceiling. “I can’t do anything until they catch him. I can’t leave them.”

“Sierra is taking the kids so that you can go to college. Lauren what is really the problem?” Lauren forgot that Camila was getting really good at reading her like a book. 

“Nobody wants me for my art. They all want me just for basketball. The one school that I am waiting on is dragging their feet and it just sucks.” Lauren finally said what she was dreading. “I don’t want you to wait for me to decide where to go. I want you to go where you want without me, if that is the case. I don’t want to hold you back from your dreams and goals either.”

“Lauren, trust me I know that. I haven’t heard from the school that I want either. So I guess we are just in a long awaited hurry up and wait game. I wish colleges had deadlines like we did to submit the applications.” Camila moved back over to the bed snuggling into Lauren’s side. “I want you to go where you want to go. We will figure us out when that happens. I meant it Lo. I’m not going anywhere. Even if we do go to different schools.” Camila kissed Lauren’s temple and the two laid there in silence for a while. 

“Camila?” Lauren waited for a response hoping she wasn’t asleep. 

“Hhmmph.” Lauren knew she was almost asleep. “Love you.”

“Love you too.” Camila just whispered out. Lauren smiled and turned off the lamp and fell asleep hoping that Camila’s dream school wasn’t across the country from hers.

~~~~~~~

“So care to tell me where we’re going Camz?” Lauren asked only half way placing the scenery around her since they had been driving for a good forty five minutes.

“Well we’re almost there so....nope.” Camila said popping the p with a huge smile on her face knowing that this was probably driving Lauren absolutely crazy.

Lauren smiled at Camila’s smile because she couldn’t help herself. “Fine torture me.” Lauren turned to the window trying to hide the smile and crossed her arms sitting back in her seat.

The scenery was still somewhat foreign yet still rememberable. Lauren just couldn’t quite place it. Soon the roads were unrecognizable to Lauren and she just gave up enjoying the view. After about another twenty minutes Camila was pulling onto a dirt road that looked like it lead to nowhere. As the car drove farther and farther away from the main road Lauren could smell the ocean getting stronger and stronger.

“Camz? Where are we?” Lauren asked as the car came to a stop.

“We are some place very special to me. I hope you are cool with meeting my grandparents.” Camila said getting out of the car and walking to Lauren’s door for her.

“Camz what are we doing at your grandparents house?” Lauren asked curiously.

“There is always one place I run to when I need a break and it just happens to be here. So just trust me and come on.” Camila grabbed Lauren’s hand and walked her to the door after grabbing her bag out of the back. 

“Moma, Pop Pop? Are you home?” Camila said walking into the beach house like she lived there all the time.

“In the kitchen sweetie.” 

Lauren tensed up for a second, “It’s fine Lo, they will love you. All because I do.” Camila dragged her smiling girlfriend behind her to the kitchen.

“Mija, it has been too long.” Camila’s grandma engulfed her into a hug. “How are you? Is everything okay?”

Camila smiled as big as she could. “Yeah Moma. Everything is great actually. I kind of wanted you to meet someone.”

“Moma, Pop Pop. This is Lauren. My girlfriend.” Camila said taking Lauren’s hand again.

“Hello Lauren, it’s nice to meet you.” Camila’s grandma said and then engulfed Lauren into a hug of her own.

“Are you two staying for lunch? I can make extras?” Camila’s grandma went to the refrigerator to pull out more ingredients.

“Of course Moma. I am just going to go show Lauren something. We will be back in a little while.” Camila kissed her grandma’s cheek and led Lauren through the back door.

Lauren took in the view that was in front of her. They were on a hill such that you could see a good expanse of the ocean but also two paths out of the backyard. One that Lauren could clearly see led down to the beach and the other wrapped back toward the hill and out of view. Still Lauren tried to make a mental note of all her surroundings knowing that she wanted to be here at sunset so that she could draw it.

“Lo come on.” Camila said after letting Lauren take it all in.

“Where are you taking me now?” Lauren chuckled as she got pulled along by Camila.

“We need to do something.”

Lauren looked at Camila with a raised eyebrow and a smirk. “Really Camz?” Lauren said as sultry as she could handle without laughing.

“Not like that you jerk. Now duck.” Camila said as she pushed a half size wooden door open that led underneath the hill.

“Woah. Wait a minute is this place even safe?” Lauren looked at the cave skeptically.

“I would hope so,” Camila laughed, “I’ve been coming in here ever since I was nine.”

“Alright.” Lauren followed Camila in and made sure she ducked her head.

Camila turned on a few lanterns and the whole cave lit up. Lauren took in her surroundings. It was almost like a tree house but underground. There was enough room for both of them to sit down rather comfortably. Lauren could see that someone had braced the ceiling and walls with sheets of plywood. However just about every square inch was covered in something that was so Camila. From all sorts of soccer players to everything musical that influenced the girl. Lauren smiled even brighter when she saw all the pictures of Sofi and Camila. Then one picture in particular caught her eye and Lauren nearly started sobbing.

“Oh yeah I thought that you might want this.” Camila said and pulled the picture off of her wall.

“How.....when.....?” Lauren couldn’t even get the words out as she took in the picture. 

“That was the first year we were at basketball camp. Back then we were on the same team. I remembered that you were one of the only girls there that would talk to me. We were inseparable. Glued to the hip as they would say.” Camila and Lauren laughed. “You were so excited and everyone loved you. You refused to do anything without me though. I think I fell in love with you that summer. I don’t care that we were nine. My mom told me I changed after that year.” Camila shook her head thinking about it.

Camila moved closer to Lauren and wiped the tears away. “You were so excited for me to meet your mom and Sierra. You drug me everywhere with you while they visited. I don’t think that I had ever saw you so happy as you were that day.” Camila kissed Lauren’s cheek.

“This was right before everything happened that winter. That summer was the last thing that I remember as being fun. Sierra left to go to college and was home for winter break when everything happened. This has to be one of the last pictures of my mom. I hated that everyone wanted to do things without you that summer. Yeah you were quite, but when you did speak, you made it mean something. You never talked to just talk. I think that is what I liked about you, and still do. You consider your words before you speak. Thank you so much for this Camz. I can’t believe that you had this.” Lauren said kissing Camila.

“Your welcome. I’m just glad that I remembered I had it.” Camila pulled her back pack into her lap. “Now for the other reason we are down here.”

Camila pulled out a stack of envelopes and set them in front of Lauren and in front of herself. “I don’t know which one of these that you want to go to the must. So I brought every single one that we could find.” Lauren just shook her head at Camila not wanting to open any of them.

“I know that you are wanting me to pick the school that I want without looking at yours. So here is what we are going to do. I’m going to open mine over there, and you can go through yours over here. Pick the one that you want Lauren. Don’t think of me or anyone else when you do. Pick the one that you want. We will figure everything else out after we have decided.” Camila gave Lauren a peck on the lips and then took her stack and went further away from Lauren.

Lauren just looked at the stack of envelopes in front of her. There had to be a good fifteen big envelopes and another five that where small ones. Lauren thought about what she wanted to do. Lauren knew that basketball could only take her so far, but she also knew that basketball was going to give her the scholarship that she needed. All in all Lauren just didn’t want to do this. Lauren looked to Camila and saw that she was emersed into the letters and had a few of them in stacks in front of her. Lauren wasn’t sure if she could separate wanting to be with Chris and Taylor and going to college. Those kids were everything to her now. Lauren loved hearing about their days and loved the smiles and adventures they went on everyday know that summer had started.

“Babe you do know you have to open them right?” Camila broke Lauren out of her thoughts.

“Hardy har. I know that, I was just thinking.”

“I know that is why I said something. You need to stop worrying about everyone else and for once just do this for you. We can worry about everyone else after you have picked your schools.” Camila tried to reassure Lauren.

“Alright I get it.” Lauren picked up the first letter and started going through them.

Camila and Lauren were down in the cave for a good two hours before they had gone through all the letters and picked where they wanted to go with no input from anyone else. Lauren was ecstatic about getting a letter from the one place that she wanted to go. Add in the fact they were offering a full ride with basketball as well and she knew that she wanted to go there, no matter what. Camila had hers all picked out too.

“Alright, are you done Lo?” 

“Yep. I’m good. Show me.” Lauren was now excited.

Camila came back over with her stack and handed her top pick over to Lauren. Lauren took the acceptance letter and read it over. It was a full ride for Camila too. “You have got to be kidding me.” Lauren said and then handed Camila her letter.

“Oh this is just too good.” The two girls cracked up laughing. Everyone was going to get a kick out of this.

“Are you sure Lo?” Camila teased.

“Oh yeah. Now I am even more sure.” Lauren grabbed the girl in front of her and kissed her for all she was worth. “Come on let’s go eat I’m starving.”

~~~~~~

Lauren made her way to the house with Camila in tow. “Are you sure Mani is covering for you?” Lauren asked walking up the walkway holding hands.

“Yeah, besides isn’t Heather going to be here in like thirty minutes anyways? So nothing can happen Lauren.” Camila said kissing Lauren before she got a chance to open the door.

Lauren pushed Camila back by her hips smiling and laughing. “Let’s take this inside before we give the whole block a show.” 

Camila stepped back and let Lauren open the door to the house, as soon as Camila was in the door Lauren had her pinned to it. Camila now understood what Lauren meant. Lauren had Camila’s hands pinned above her head and pressed her hips into Camila’s. Camila let out a moan as Lauren ran her fingertips down the inside of her arms and simultaneously rolled her hips into Camila again. Camila let Lauren place her leg between hers and she wrapped one leg around Lauren’s back trying to pull her as close as possible. Lauren smiled into the kiss as Camila rolled her hips on her own, Lauren took advantage of Camila’s neck and found her pulse point. 

Camila on instinct leaned her head farther away giving Lauren more bare skin to work with. Lauren slowly kept moving her hands further and further down until they reached Camila’s hips and settled there. Camila didn’t bring her hands down at the moment getting lost in the way that Lauren was making her feel. Lauren kissed down to Camila’s collar bone and then made her way back up to kissing Camila. Lauren moved her hands under the hem of Camila’s shirt and rubbed patterns with her thumbs on Camila’s hips. Camila was really starting to lose control of her senses, she finally dropped her hands straight to the hem of Lauren’s shirt and pulled if off. Both girls took a much needed breath and Camila looked into the lust filled eyes of Lauren. Smiling Camila pulled Lauren back in by the back of her neck. 

“What the hell is going on here?!” Someone yelled and it broke Lauren and Camila up. Lauren was automatically in a defensive stance and made sure that Camila was behind her.

“Why are you bringing that kind of filth into my house?” Mike seethed and Camila could literally feel the hate in his words.

Lauren tightened her grip on Camila and stood taller to block her dad. “You don’t get to talk to her like that. Talk about me all you want, but leave her alone.” Lauren all but pulled out of Camila’s hands wanting to get at her dad, but stayed put.

Mike just laughed, not that we are having a good time kind either, this one was filled with malice and anger. “This is still my house and if I say that I don’t want this kind of filth in my house then you will obey by my rules.” Mike had made his way closer to the two girls.

Lauren knew that they were screwed. Camila and Lauren were stuck in the small hallway that led into the house. It pretty much meant that there was no way out except through the front door. Right now though Lauren had Camila pressed up against it with trying to protect her. Lauren knew that the only way someone was going to get out of this was if she bum rushed her dad. Lauren knew that Camila was going to freak when she did it too.

“Camila?” Lauren said quietly not taking her eyes of Mike who was getting closer.

“Get outside. Call H. Stay outside no matter what.” Lauren knew what was coming next.

“No Lo. I won’t leave you with him.” Camila squeezed Lauren’s arms tighter in her hands.

“Camz, please just this once trust me and do what I want you to do. I need you safe.” Lauren tightened her grip on Camila’s hip for reassurance.

“No Lo. I can’t.” Camila was started to get tears in her eyes. Camila knew that if she left the two alone that something bad was going to happen. Camila wouldn’t live with herself if something happened to Lauren again. Camila wanted to help Lauren.

“Camz I mean it. I’m about to do the only thing I know to do and I need you to please just do this one thing for me.” Lauren knew that it was now or never and with one last hip squeeze took a running jump at her dad.

Mike was a little caught off guard as Camila screamed and Lauren slammed into his front. Lauren and Mike stumbled back into the living room area and soon enough they were on the floor when Mike bumped into something. The loud crash had Camila running toward the living room instead of out of the house. Lauren was the first one back on her feet and got to Camila. “I’m fine please go call H.” 

Camila pulled out her phone dialing the number and at least taking a few steps back as Lauren tried to push her back toward the front door. “Go Camila!” 

Lauren turned around only to be met with a punch to her face. Lauren stumbled into the couch and tried to keep herself upright as her dad moved in trying to get to her. Lauren stumbled around the broken coffee table nearly falling a couple of times just trying to stay away and regain her composure. Lauren could see a blurred vision of her dad and tried to focus on him. Lauren made her way around the room, almost a one eighty from Camila, and leaned up against the wall. Mike was faster though and was on her in an instance. Lauren was soon thrown back across the room by the head. Lauren put her hands out but wasn’t sure exactly which way was right as she connect with the opposite wall with a loud thud and the air was knocked out of her. 

Lauren thought that she heard someone scream but she wasn’t sure exactly who. Lauren slowly lifted herself back up off the floor that she had slumped down too. Lauren staggered to regain her footing. “You think you’re so tough don’t you? This is one battle you are not going to win Lauren Michelle.” Lauren heard the all too familiar hate from her fathers tone. Lauren needed to get in front of Camila though, she couldn’t let anything happen to her.

Lauren stood up as much as she could using her surroundings to make her way away from Camila. “I don’t have to be tough to beat you. I only have to be me.” Lauren said egging him on and hopefully making him focus only on her.

Lauren knew that the next hit was coming. If anything Mike was predictable in his hitting, if you talked back you got back handed. Lauren used it to her advantage and blocked the hit, and landing one of her own into his ribs. When Mike staggered back at the unexpected hit Lauren lunged again wrapping her arms around his waist and going as hard as she could. They both went flying into the already broken furniture and this time Lauren was having a hard time getting up. Lauren felt like she had just ran a marathon everything was hurting, including her already broken ribs. 

Lauren though eventually found her feet and with her head starting to clear up she was able to block the next swing that came her way. Soon Mike and Lauren where in fighting stances and Lauren was just biding her time. Mike though grabbed a few items as he circled and hurled them at Lauren. A picture frame caught Lauren off guard when it curved back toward her like a boomerang, when she flinched out of the way Mike pounced. Lauren couldn’t have stopped the blow even if she wanted to. As it connected with the side of her head she knew that she was done. Lauren thought she heard Camila scream but the next thing she knew it was all pitch black.

Camila knew that Heather had to almost be there the sirens could be heard outside. Camila made sure that while Lauren had Mike busy that she got outside and let the officers inside the house. Camila didn’t leave though and followed them inside. The last thing that she wanted to see happen did and Lauren was laying on the floor unconscious and a third officer was holding her back from running to Lauren. Camila though did see that the other two officers had tasered Mike and he was being dealt with. Camila only wanted to get to Lauren though and no one was letting her. Camila fought as hard as she could to get to Lauren, the officer that had her though picked her up and hauled her out of the house and into someone else’s arms. 

Camila watched the paramedics running into the house and knew that they would take care of Lauren but still Camila wanted in there. “Camila please stop. Camila calm down.” Camila heard Heather’s voice.

Camila stopped struggling so hard yet still fought to be let go. Heather just pulled her tighter and embraced her in a mom hug. The one where no matter how hard she tried Heather just wasn’t going to let go. Soon enough Camila broke down and started sobbing into Heather’s shoulder. Camila finally let up and Heather held her by the biceps at arms length. “Camila you good?”

“I’m not....” Camila went to answer but the commotion behind her had her ready to fight. Heather was holding her back in an instance as the officers brought Mike out and put him in the cop car.

“I need to get to Lauren. Please Heather let me go to Lauren.” When Camila saw that Mike was finally captured she returned to just wanting to get to Lauren.

“We can’t. We have to let them do their jobs.” Heather said. “Lauren is one hell of a strong girl she will pull through this. Just you watch and see Camila.” Heather tried to reassure the girl as she pulled her back into a hug.

Camila used it to her advantage though and relaxed in Heather’s arms, as soon as she felt Heather slack Camila was off like a rocket and into the house.

“Shit! She is fast.” Heather said and took off after Camila.

Camila wasn’t sure what she expected but it wasn’t Lauren being strapped to a gurney and getting ready to be wheeled out. Camila threw her hands up to her mouth as she stopped in the door way to the living room. Heather though was soon right behind her and pulling her out of the way as they wheeled her by. Camila ran her fingers down Lauren’s arm as she went past not feeling Lauren’s hand trying to grip hers. Camila was in tears as they wheeled Lauren out but Heather and her followed the ambulance to the hospital. Camila called Lauren’s family along the way.

“What happened Camila?” Heather finally asked after all the family got there and settled down spread around the waiting room.

“When Camila felt Normani hug her tighter she took a deep breathe. “We got to Lauren’s house a little earlier than we thought and we were....um....” Camila blushed and dropped her head down, “we were making out of sorts.” 

Camila brought her head back up when Dinah, Mani and Ally chuckled at her. “We were actually in the middle of kissing when he surprised us from behind” Camila went into full detail about what happened as everyone waited for the doctors to come back out.

What Camila didn’t expect was for Sierra to come up to her a little later as she went in search of something to drink. “Hey Camila.” Sierra started off softly not wanting to scare the girl.

“Oh, hey Sierra.” Camila was brought out of her worried thoughts.

Sierra wasted no time and brought the surprised girl in for a hug. Camila felt some of the tension fall off of her shoulders. Camila felt the tears before she heard them and just held Sierra in the hallway, let the older girl get it out of her system. Camila knew that Sierra was holding it together for Chris and Taylor and knew the girl needed this.

“Thank you.” Sierra finally sniffled out as she backed away from Camila. “You know she doesn’t shut up about you.” It wasn’t a question but a statement. “The only other time we couldn’t get her to shut up about someone was when she came home from basketball camp that first year.” Camila blushed at the statement but had a smile on her face at the comment.

Sierra didn’t put two and two together, but Camila was glad that she had just as much impact on the other girl as well. “I’m sorry I couldn’t do more Sierra.” Camila wiped the stray tear away. “Lauren wouldn’t let me though, she kept putting herself between him and I.”

“Yep that’s Lauren.” Sierra said with a smile. “Always the protector.”

“Yeah.” 

Their talk was cut short when Dinah yelled down the hallway that the doctor came out. Camila and Sierra both ran toward the waiting room. The both halted right next to Milika as she talked to the doctor. 

“Lauren has a concussion as well as many bruises and cuts. I do have to ask, how long has the abuse been going on?” The doctor looked around the people standing in front of him. Most with shocked expressions the three in front though answered him. 

“About four years sir.” Sierra said.

“Well that would explain some of the scarring then. Alright anyways she is awake but we want to keep her for a few days to make sure that there is no swelling. Give us a few moments to get her settled into her new room. One of you can come with me to be with her as she is awake. So who will it be?”

Camila thought for sure that it would be Sierra, but when she got pushed forward by not only Sierra but Milika as well she turned back to them. “Are you sure? Sierra you are her family.”

Sierra took Camila’s face into her hands. “Sweetie you are her family. You were there when no of us knew anything. Now go make sure that your girl is okay and not worried about you.” Sierra let go and pushed her toward the waiting doctor. “Besides you know she would only keep asking for you anyways if one of us went.” 

Everyone chuckled as Camila walked back to the room.

Lauren turned toward the door when it opened and Camila swore she had never seen a bigger smile on the girls face. Camila held herself back from just jumping on Lauren and walked to the side of the bed and grabbed Lauren’s hand.

“Camz I don’t care how much it is going to hurt but if you don’t kiss me right now.” Lauren said pulling Camila down to her crashing their lips.

Camila pulled back and sat in the chair next to the bed. “Never scare me like that again Lauren.” Camila wiped the tear away that she didn’t want to shed.

“I’m sorry Camz I didn’t know what else to do. I had to keep him away from you. I had to distract him long enough for Heather to get there.” Lauren tried to move closer to Camila and winced in pain the whole time.

“Stop moving,” Camila got up and set on the side of the bed, “and just so you know they got him. He’s in custody.” Lauren couldn’t stop the smile on her face.

~~~~~~ 

“If you are just tuning in you are missing one hell of a game. The Penn State Lions are beating the Princeton Tigers by five points for the season home opener. With new recruits Lauren Jauregui and Camila Cabello this has been a game for the record books. As both are having the game of their careers.” The announcer filled listeners in as the timeout came to a conclusion. 

“Alright let’s see what happens next as the Tigers have the ball and only two minutes to make up the points.”

“You ready for this Cabello?” Lauren asked with a smirk and taking her position.

“You know it Jauregui.” Camila said confidently and with a smirk of her own.

“Alright here comes the in bound pass straight to Cabello. Jauregui is not giving her an inch of space to bring the ball up though. You can definitely tell that the two newcomers played together in high school. Cabello passes it off as she sees the double team coming. Back across half court and the ball is back to Cabello again Jauregui seems to know ever move Cabello is making. Oh wait what was that?! With a side step juke and Cabello is loose from Jauregui and driving to the basket with a nice hand off to her big the Tigers are now only down by three. What will be the Tigers answer?” The announcer was up on his feet as the game was coming to a close.

“Nice move Cabello.” Lauren said get ready to run the press play.

“Thanks Lo.” Camila said and defended Lauren from the inbound pass.

Lauren got the ball and was immediately surrounded and she passed it to her winger. The Lions got it across half court and Lauren set up the next play not wanting to let up at all. As the Lions take up a defensive stance in a zone Lauren knows just the play she wants to set up. “Tiger Rush!” Lauren yells and her team runs the play. 

Lauren passes the ball and circles around to stand under the hoop on the baseline out of bounds. Lauren jukes left and goes right trying to lose Camila. As Camila tried to follow Lauren and the ball at the same time she fails to notice the other guard going in for the lay up and is surprised when the crowd goes up in cheers.

Lauren is all smiles as Camila brings the ball up for the Tigers. Camila had been working on a play and the team ran it perfectly getting her open for her sweet spot three pointer that she sinks with a swoosh as Lauren smiles at her girlfriend. Lauren let’s the ball get inbounded but with only nine seconds left on the clock she just holds on to it and keeps it away from Camila. Once the buzzer sounds Lauren let’s the ball go behind her toward the ref and grabs Camila up in a bear hug.

“I missed you.” Lauren didn’t care that they were sweaty and disgusting she just placed her head in the nook of Camila’s shoulder.

“I missed you too Lo.” Camila was not going to cry and she held it together the best she could.

Lauren pulled back when she gathered herself up. “Where the hell did that move come from? They were amazing.” Lauren gushed at how much Camila was growing as a player.

“I could say the same to you superstar.” Camila grinned at Lauren.

Lauren didn’t care anymore and kissed Camila like it was the last time they would see each other. Pulling back needing air and knowing that someone had probably just got a picture of that. Lauren looked into Camila’s eyes finally happy with how her life turned out. 

“This is going to be one hell of a Rivalry ain’t it?” Camila just laughed and kissed the girl again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much to anyone that read the story and liked it. Please let me know what you liked about the story. Here or on my tumblr @paiger1324 I love feedback. Constructive criticism is a must in order for me to get better. Again thank you for reading and I hope to give you more stories in the future. Love y'all. Stay beautiful!!


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